The clinical stigmata of aberrant neurodevelopment in schizophrenia.

The neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia is currently a primary etiopathological model for schizophrenia. Its tenets derive from observations of epidemiological, postmortem, and brain imaging evidence of neurodevelopmental deviance. Clinical stigmata of neurodevelopmental arrest include the presence of obstetric complications, minor physical anomalies, abnormal dermatoglyphics, and childhood neuromotor precursors of adult schizophrenic illness. The relative importance of these stigmata and their relationship to brain imaging findings in schizophrenia are discussed.