The British Journal of Psychiatry 131: 448-452 (1977)
© 1977 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Handedness in psychiatric patients
JJ Fleminger, R Dalton and KF Standage
Eight hundred psychiatric patients and eight hundred controls completed a
handedness preference questionnaire. There was no significant difference in
handedness between the two samples, but, contrary to some previous reports,
excess of sinistrality was not associated with male sex. The distribution
of handedness was similar in neurotics and controls, but among psychotics
in general there was a higher proportion of fully right-handed subjects.
Among schizophrenics there was a significantly higher proportion of
left-handed writers among males than females. There were relatively few
left-handed writers of either sex among patients with affective psychosis.
Female patients with personality disorders had a significantly higher
proportion of mixed handedness than controls. The findings are considered
in relation to suggestions that functional psychoses may be associated with
asymmetrical cerebral dysfunction, and that poorly lateralized function may
be related to anomalous psychological development.