Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T14:22:58.545Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Handedness in Mental Handicap: Investigation into Populations of Down's Syndrome, Epilepsy and Autism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

J. Lewin ,
D. Kohen  and
G. Mathew
J. Lewin*
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry of Disability, Department of Mental Health Sciences, St George's Hospital Medical School, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 0RE
D. Kohen
Affiliation:
Charing Cross and Westminster Hospital and Medical School, London
G. Mathew
Affiliation:
Cell Barnes Hospital, St Albans
*
∗Correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The handedness in three randomly sampled groups of people with learning disabilities consisting of patients with Down's syndrome, epilepsy, and autism were studied using a validated instrument. All subjects were controlled for neurological and other medical disorders. A statistically significant increase in left-handedness and ambiguous handedness compared with the general population was found in all groups. There was no significant difference in the rate of left-handedness between the three groups.

Type
Brief Reports
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 163 , Issue 5 , November 1993 , pp. 674 - 676
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1993 

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

Batheje, M. & McManus, I. C. (1985) Handedness in mentally handicapped. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 27, 63–68.Google Scholar
Devenny, D. A. & Silverman, W. P. (1990) Speech dysfluency and manual specialized in Down's syndrome. Journal of Mental Deficiency Research, 34, 253–260.Google Scholar
Elliott, D. (1985) Manual asymmetries in the performance of sequential movement by adolescents and adults with Down's syndrome. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 90, 90–97.Google Scholar
Fein, D., Humes, M., Uaplan, E., et al (1984) The question of left hemisphere dysfunction in infantile autism. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 258–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Flor-Henry, P. (1983) Cerebral Basis of Psychopathology. Boston: Wright/PSG.Google Scholar
Gillberg, C. (1983) Autistic children's hand preferences: results from an epidemiological study of infantile autism. Psychiatry Research, 10, 21–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hicks, R. E. & Barton, A. K. (1975) A note of left-handedness and mental retardation. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 127, 323–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oldfield, R. C. (1971) The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh Inventory. Neuropsychologic, 9, 97–113.Google Scholar
Palmer, R. D. (1964) Development of differentiated handedness. Psychological Bulletin, 62, 257–272.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Satz, P. (1972) Pathological left-handedness: an explanatory model. Cortex, 8, 121–135.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.