title: Hand preference and diagnosis in major mental illness.
abstract: A sample of 1,671 patients in a long-term psychiatric inpatient hospital were polled for hand preference in writing. Nonright-handers (n = 420) were more often diagnosed schizophrenic than Right-handers (n = 1,251), but the overall proportion of psychotic illness was the same in both handedness groups, suggesting the possibility that nonright-handedness may be associated with a change in the expression of psychotic illness so it is somewhat more likely to be manifest as thought disorder than mood disorder.
authors.affiliation: McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Charles S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Mirabile
authors.forename: Martin H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Teicher
mesh_terms: D002908:Chronic Disease; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology