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Hand preference and diagnosis in major mental illness
Charles S Mirabile1, Martin H Teicher
1McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
Perceptual and Motor Skills
|January 2, 2003
Summary
Nonright-handedness in psychiatric patients may indicate a shift towards thought disorders over mood disorders. This finding suggests handedness could influence psychosis expression in schizophrenia.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Neuroscience
- Human Behavior
Background:
- Handedness, the preference for using one hand over the other, is a well-documented human trait.
- Previous research has explored potential links between nonright-handedness and various neurological and psychiatric conditions.
- Understanding variations in handedness within psychiatric populations may offer insights into the underlying neurobiology of mental illness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between hand preference and specific psychiatric diagnoses in a long-term inpatient population.
- To explore whether nonright-handedness correlates with particular symptom profiles within psychotic disorders.
Main Methods:
- A survey of 1,671 patients in a long-term psychiatric hospital assessed hand preference for writing.
- Patient diagnoses were analyzed in relation to handedness (right-handed vs. nonright-handed).
Main Results:
- Nonright-handers (n=420) showed a higher prevalence of schizophrenia diagnoses compared to right-handers (n=1,251).
- The overall incidence of psychotic illness did not differ significantly between handedness groups.
- Nonright-handedness appeared associated with a greater likelihood of thought disorder manifestation compared to mood disorder within the psychotic illness spectrum.
Conclusions:
- Nonright-handedness may be linked to a distinct pattern of psychotic illness expression, favoring thought disorders.
- These findings suggest that hand preference could be a subtle indicator influencing the phenotypic presentation of psychosis.
- Further research is warranted to elucidate the neurobiological mechanisms connecting handedness and the specific manifestation of psychiatric disorders.