[stephera]

Is it true that health care professionals can tell if a child will develop schizophrenia by how big their heads are when getting checkups?
Thanks,
Steph

[talaxandra]

I'm not a psych nurse, but my understanding is that schizophrenia is a biochemical disturbance. In any case the problem is with the brain, not the skull, which is what determines head size. I can't imagine that pedicatric head size gives any indication about mental illness, but does indicate problems like hydrocephalus.

[hypnotic_nurse]

As far as I know, there is no way to tell if someone will get schizophrenia. Most people who knew the person prior to the first psychotic break have told me that they were just as normal as any other kid.

[donmurray]

In a word, No. Nobody can tell.

[CliveUK]

Short answer - no.
Long answer - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Gator,SN]

It is not the skull that gets bigger when a person has schizophrenia, it is the ventricles in the brain that are usually enlarged. This can be detected on MRI.
Gator

[CliveUK]

Originally Posted by Gator,SN

It is not the skull that gets bigger when a person has schizophrenia, it is the ventricles in the brain that are usually enlarged.

Hypothetically. In fact, none of the studies has demonstrated conclusively that ventricular enlargement is a feature of schizophrenia.

[Spazzy Nurse]

I gotta ask, Steph, where the heck did you hear that?

[StuPer]

This sounds like a throwback to the days of Phrenology (http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/301/301lect03.htm) when it was thought you could tell if a person was likely to be a criminal (is those days the mentally ill were considered almost as criminal). I also met a Georgian psychiatrist in the prison system here in Australia who seriously believed that a predisposition to mental illness could be established by certain features of the skull and facial features... it was an interesting lecture, even though most of us wondered who should be on the anti-psychotic...lol
regards StuPer

[Thunderwolf]

The answer quite simply is No. Schizophrenia is a physiological disorder, not anatomical.