schizophrenia

StuPer · Oct 14, 2004

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, MSN, RN · Oct 17, 2004

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

stephera · Oct 17, 2004

Someone told me that and I got to looking at a few who do have schizophrenia (my brother included) and their heads are shaped different. Thanks for all the posts.

Steph

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

Spazzy Nurse, RN · Oct 18, 2004

I've never heard that one before Steph. How are they shaped different from what you saw? I need to check this out with my clients.

Gompers, BSN, RN · Oct 18, 2004

Great, another thing for parents to freak out about for NO REASON!

It does run in families though - maybe their heads have a similar shape because of genetics?

My cousin is schizophrenic - maybe I should measure his head? :uhoh21:

Nursie_Annie · Oct 18, 2004

If you could tell someone's psychiatric diagnosis by the shape of their head, that would be what would be used for the diagnosis, don't you think?

And if you could tell someone was schizophrenic by how they looked, I bet a lot of people would be able to avoid getting tangled up with the occasional schizophrenic who acts out his/her paranoia.

(This seems like an odd idea.... that people with psychotic disorders--which are biochemical and only sometimes diagnosable on a cellular level--will have oddly shaped heads.....)

HarryPotter · Nov 8, 2004

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

absolutely untrue!!! Schitzophrenia is a disease of brain chemical dysfunctions. I have treated many schizophrenic patients and none of them had big heads. My brother has schizophrenia, and he did not have a big head. There is no connection between head size and schizohrenia!

People usually show signs of schizophrenia between 19-26. It can be brought on by family history and stress can often begin a "first episode."

pedseducator · Jul 3, 2006

I have never heard that hydrocephalus causes schizophrenia. The older children I have come in contact with who have hydrocephalus and are controlled with a shunt are of normal mental status.

LydiaNN · Jul 3, 2006

There have been studies about schizophrenia and smaller head circumference, but I don't know the results. I do know, however, that Dr. Eric Courschene at University of California San Diego has studied autism and head circumference. Maybe what you heard was a skewed version of those results. This study is totally legitimate. Dr. Courschene is highly regarded researcher. A bit from the study results:

Children with ASD most commonly come to clinical attention between the second and third years of life, and little is known of their neuroanatomical development up to that point. Our lab has been the first to find a potential biological early warning sign and to link it to later brain abnormality. By taking measurements from the magnetic resonance images made after diagnosis, we found that 90% of the children with autism had unusually large head circumference measures, and greater than normal brain volumes, primarily due to excessive gray and white matter volumes in the cerebrum --- particularly the frontal lobes --- and excessive white matter volumes in the cerebellum.

Since head circumference measures at birth are normal for children with ASD, or even slightly below normal, this finding suggested that the behavioral manifestations of the disorder might be preceded by a period of abnormally rapid brain growth.

http://www.courchesneautismlab.org/headcircumference.html

My son, who has autism, participated in this study. I once introduced myself to Dr. Courschene at a conference (I had only met his assistants) and he said my son's name ''didn't ring a bell, but I'm sure I'd recognize his brain'', lol!

HarryPotter · Jul 4, 2006

No.

smallrice · Jul 4, 2006

schizophrenia is mental illness. it cannot be diagnosed by physical examination. if you have family history, it will be more chance to get schizophrenia...

LydiaNN · Jul 4, 2006

I'm sorry, but I think those of you who are scoffing at this idea are ignoring some compelling evidence that the idea needs further study. As I cited earlier, there is an established link between autism and head circumference, and while the same link hasn't been with schizophrenia, several studies have found evidence of smaller head circumference among preschizophrenic infants. In general, there is more and more science suggesting at least a partially neurodevelopmental basis to schizophrenia:

http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/abstract/162/4/517

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8794505&dopt=Citation

http://www.enotalone.com/article/3019.html

I think we can count on learning much more about schizophrenia in the next 10 years.