Minor physical anomalies in non-familial unipolar recurrent major depression

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of minor physical anomalies (MPAs) was evaluated in patients with unipolar recurrent major depression to get indirect data on the possible role of aberrant neurodevelopment in the aetiology of major depression. One published study [Lohr et al., Am. J. Geriatr. Psychiatry 5 (1997) 318] on the MPA prevalence in unipolar depression, evaluated by the recently widely criticized Waldrop-scale, reports on a significantly higher MPA rate among patients. METHODS: A scale developed by Méhes [Prog. Clin. Biol. Res. 163 (1985) 45] was used to detect the presence or absence of 57 MPAs in 30 patients with major depression and in 30 matched controls. RESULTS: The depressive sample did not differ significantly from the control group (P=0.200). By comparing each MPA individually we could not find any significant differences between the depressive and the control sample. LIMITATIONS: Patients and control subjects had a negative family history in connection with affective disorders; a high-risk population should give significant positive results. CONCLUSIONS: The results do not support the role of an 'early neurodevelopmental origin' in unipolar depression.