Dermatoglyphic study of positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia

The study of dermal ridges in schizophrenia has been extensive, but only re cently has fluctuating asymmetry been described. This study relates dermato glyphic patterns with the specific positive and negative symptoms of the di sease in 72 DSM-III-R defined schizophrenia and 72 normal unrelated ethnica lly matched controls. Schizophrenic subjects had significant lower ridge co unts in both hands. Fluctuating asymmetry in the a-b ridge counts was signi ficantly lower in schizophrenic subjects (0.50 vs 0.70, p<0.05). The positi ve and negative symptom scale (PANSS) was used to determine symptom severit y. Schizophrenics with predominantly negative symptoms showed significantly lower counts and higher fluctuating asymmetry than schizophrenics with pos itive symptoms. Our study showed findings congruent with the hypothesis that schizophrenia could be related to central nervous system developmental abnormalities.