Dermatoglyphic Study of Positive and Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia

The study of dermal ridges in schizophrenia has been extensive, but only recently has fluctuating asymmetry been described. This study relates dermatoglyphic patterns with the specific positive and negative symptoms of the disease in 72 DSM-III-R defined schizophrenia and 72 normal unrelated ethnically matched controls. Schizophrenic subjects had significant lower ridge counts in both hands. Fluctuating asymmetry in the a-b ridge counts was significantly lower in schizophrenic subjects (0.50 vs 0.70, p<0.05). The positive and negative symptom scale (PANSS) was used to determine symptom severity. Schizophrenics with predominantly negative symptoms showed significantly lower counts and higher fluctuating asymmetry than schizophrenics with positive symptoms. Our study showed findings congruent with the hypothesis that schizophrenia could be related to central nervous system developmental abnormalities.