Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T11:52:39.722Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Differences between Two Studies of Hand Preference in Psychiatric Patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Pamela J. Taylor
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5
Rosemary Dalton
Affiliation:
Guy's Hospital Medical School, London Bridge, London SE1
J. J. Fleminger
Affiliation:
Guy's Hospital
W. A. Lishman
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry

Summary

Significant differences in handedness patterns between groups of psychiatric patients and normal controls were identified in two recent British studies, with substantial disagreement in some important findings. Most of the discrepancies were attributable to the different application of a simple classification of handedness data, and the remainder to differences in sample size. Diagnosis, sex and age were then found to have a similar effect on handedness in both studies. Neurotic patients were similar to controls regardless of classification, whereas mixed handedness in personality disorder depended on it. There was no overall excess of left-handedness among schizophrenics, but trends towards excess sinistrality in men and full dextrality in women approached significance.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1982 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Annett, M. (1970) A classification of hand preference by Association Analysis. British Journal of Psychology, 61, 303–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baker, R. J. & Nelder, J. A. (1978) GLIM: Generalized linear interaction modelling. Royal Statistical Society, Numerical Algorithms Group, Oxford.Google Scholar
Boklage, C. E. (1977) Schizophrenia, brain asymmetry development and twinning: cellular relationship with etiological and possibly prognostic implications. Biological Psychiatry, 12, 1735.Google Scholar
Everitt, B. S. (1977) The Analysis of Contingency Tables. London: Chapman and Hill.Google Scholar
Fleminger, J. J., Dalton, R. & Standage, K. F. (1977a) Handedness in psychiatric patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 448–52.Google Scholar
Fleminger, J. J., Dalton, R. & Standage, K. F. (1977b) Age as a factor in the handedness of adults. Neuropsychologia, 15, 471–3.Google Scholar
Flor-Henry, P. (1976) Lateralized temporal-limbic dysfunction and psychopathology. Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 280, 777–95.Google Scholar
Forrest, A. D. & Hay, A. J. (1971) Sex differences in the schizophrenic experience. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 47, 137–49.Google Scholar
Forrest, A. D. & Hay, A. J. (1972) Influence of sex on schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinvaica, 48, 4958.Google Scholar
General Register Office (1968) A Glossary of Mental Disorders. Studies on Medical and Population Subjects No 22. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Lishman, W. A. & McMeekan, E. R. L. (1976) Hand preference in psychiatric patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 129, 158–66.Google Scholar
McMeekan, E. R. L. & Lishman, W. A. (1975) Retest reliabilities and interrelationship of the Annett Hand Preference Questionnaire and the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. British Journal of Psychology, 66, 53–9.Google Scholar
Taylor, D. C. (1969) Differential rates of cerebral maturation between sexes and between hemispheres. Lancet, ii, 140–2.Google Scholar
Taylor, P. J., Dalton, R. & Fleminger, J. J. (1980) Handedness in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 375–83.Google Scholar
Wahl, O. F. (1976) Handedness in schizophrenia. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 42, 944–6.Google Scholar
Wexler, B. E. (1980) Cerebral laterality and psychiatry: a review of the literature. American Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 279–91.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.