[Laterality of hospitalized endogenous-depression patients]

Compared to normals, groups of inpatients with unipolar and involutional depression show a higher proportion of consistent right-handers, whereas bipolar patients do not differ from normals. All patient-groups show a clearly higher proportion of persons with a "dominance" of the right thumb when habitually clasping the hands or fingers. The variables "eyedness" and "familial sinistrality" do not show significant differences between groups. When drawing geometric figures in a bimanual-coordinated fashion, all patient groups demonstrate a prevalence of simultaneous counter-clockwise drawing with both hands, whereas normals overwhelmingly prefer a discordant mode of drawing, the left hand acting counter-clockwise and the right hand clockwise. We interpret this behavior in depressives to be an expression of an interhemispheric functional relationship in which the left hemisphere is subordinated to the right hemisphere.