Patterns of lateral preference in psychotic patients

Two tests of lateral preference (hand-clasping and arm-folding) were investigated in 50 adult right-handed healthy controls and in 42 right-handed psychotic patients. In the psychotics, hand-clasping and arm-folding with uppermost left positions were less evident than in the controls. In the psychotics with uppermost right positions in both tests (including handedness, i.e. unilateral right), good prognostic clinical features were most pronounced. These results, which were predominantly found in the males, are interpreted on the basis of possible relationships between hemispheric asymmetries and lateral preferences.