Orofacial Differences in People With Deficit Schizophrenia
People with schizophrenia with primary negative symptoms, known as deficit schizophrenia, had significantly wider oral palates compared with patients with nondeficit schizophrenia as well as control subjects in a study published online in Schizophrenia Bulletin.
“This difference in palate width may reflect a divergence in development between deficit and nondeficit patients that occurs by the early second trimester,” researchers wrote, “and is consistent with the hypothesis that deficit schizophrenia is a separate disease within the syndrome of schizophrenia.”
The findings come from an interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers, including lead author Brian Kirkpatrick, MD, chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, University of Nevada Reno School of Medicine. A dentist made blinded measurements to compare palate shape in 21 people with deficit schizophrenia, 25 people with non-deficit schizophrenia, and 127 control subjects, all matched for age and gender.
