Morphological Abnormalities in Schizophrenia: Systematic Review

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a severe, frequent, heterogeneous, longlasting and disabling chronic mental illness with high social impact, belonging to the group of chronic psychoses. There are several clinical forms and several possible evolutionary modes. Its etiopathogenesis is multifactorial (hereditary, biological, environmental, etc.) but no single cause has been demonstrated up till now. Schizophrenia is a group of disabling heterogeneous disorders that are generally severe, the course of which is chronic and disabling, and the prognosis is poor. Many retrospective studies have attempted to trace the premorbid history of adult subjects who developed schizophrenia. Their results appear to be extremely disparate, due in particular to the heterogeneity of the means of investigation used. In addition, in recent years, many studies have focused on prodromal symptoms occurring during the year preceding the first psychotic episode in late adolescence or early adulthood. Minor physical cranio-cerebral (at the level of the ears, the palate, the cranial perimeter), temporomandibular, dental and palatal abnormalities, dermatoglyphic disturbances or even subtle neurological signs have been frequently found in schizophrenic patients, in particular oral anomalies, more precisely the measurements of the teeth, their vestibulo-lingual and mesio-distal diameters. The objective of our article is to study the morphological abnormalities that exist in the patient with schizophrenia, and to demonstrate whether there is a link between the presence of these physical abnormalities and the occurrence of schizophrenia. This issue has been vaguely mentioned in the literature, but in the Moroccan context, it is a pilot study.