SCHIZOPHRENIA RESEARCH ELSEVIER Schizophrenia Research 13 ( 1994) 179- 184 Further evidence for anomalies in the hand-prints of patients with schizophrenia: a study of secondary creases Mary Cannona, Majella Byrnea, David Cottera, Pak Shamb, Conall Larkin”, Eadbhard O’Callaghan”,* “St. John of God Community Psychiatric Services, Newtownpark Ave., Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, bDepartment of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry and King’s College Hospital, London, UK Received 20 April 1993, revision received 4 November 1993; accepted 8 December 1993 Abstract Finger and palm prints from 46 ICD-9 schizophrenic patients and 43 age and sex matched normal controls were examined independently and blind to diagnosis, by four raters. Seven prints were judged to have very high densities of secondary creases. These abnormal prints were all from the schizophrenic group. Patients with high densities of creases were more severely ill, having had more than five admissions to hospital and higher doses of neuroleptic medication. There was a trend for such patients to have had a complicated obstetric history and an earlier onset of their illness. Key words: Secondary palmar crease; Dermatoglyphics; White line; (Schizophrenia) 1. Introduction There is increasing evidence that factors operat- ing before or around the time of birth may increase the likelihood of an individual later developing schizophrenia (Murray et al., 1992). Recent neuro- pathological (Jakob and Beckman, 1989) and epidemiological studies (Mednick et al., 1988) implicate the second trimester of fetal life. Since the fetal hand develops predominantly during the second trimester, examination of the finger and palm prints of schizophrenic patients may provide evidence for developmental disturbance (Bracha et al., 1991). Previous studies of dermatoglyphics in schizo- phrenia applied dermatoglyphic measurements * Corresponding author. Tel: +353-l-2833766. Fax: +353- 1-2833886. such as fingerprint pattern frequencies, total finger ridge counts and width of atd angle as genetic markers with variable and inconsistent results (Mellor, 1968). Subsequent studies have demon- strated that although dermatoglyphic characteris- tics are primarily genetically determined, unlike HLA or DNA markers they are significantly affected by early second trimester insults (Purvis- Smith et al., 1972). Bracha and colleagues (1991; 1992) using the powerful discordant monozygotic twin control research design, examined dermato- glyphics in schizophrenia as second trimester markers. They reported significant alterations in both hand morphology and primary creases (Bracha et al., 1991) as well as finger tip ridge counts (Bracha et al., 1992) among schizophrenic patients when compared to their healthy co-twins. These authors concluded that their findings pro- vide evidence for a second-trimester fetal maldevel- 0920-9964/94/$7.00 0 1994 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved SSDI 0920-9964(93)E0096-C