Dermatoglyphics in patients with schizophrenia

Background: there are controversial evidences on the association between fingerprint traits and schizophrenia. we compared fingerprint traits of patients with schizophrenia and normal individuals in iranian population. methods: finger tip dermal ridge of 290 patients with schizophrenia and 290 normal subjects were studied for four dermal traits. data was analyzed with pearson correlation and student’s tests. results: finger print patterns and secondary creases were not significantly different between the two groups (p > 0.05). although mean ridge counts of left and right index fingers of the case group were greater than the control group (p < 0.05), these differences were not significant in females. conclusions: probably the left index ridge counts and fluctuating asymmetry in schizophrenic patients are different from those of the normal population. this difference may serve as a diagnostic biological marker for screening people susceptible to schizophrenia. further studies are needed to determine predictive value of fingerprint trait as a biomarker for the schizophrenia.