Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T18:03:45.120Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Motor and Sighting Dominance in Chronic Schizophrenics

Relationship to Social Competence, Age at First Admission, and Clinical Course

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Edward L. Merrin*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of California School of Medicine, and Psychiatry Service (116N)

Summary

The relationship was examined between sinistral eye and hand preference and age at first hospitalisation, clinical course and social competence in chronic schizophrenics. Motor and sighting dominance were assessed in 52 newly admitted chronic schizophrenic males. Left-handedness in this study was associated with inferior social competence, but left-eyedness with later age of first hospitalisation and proportionally less time spent in hospitals. These findings were only true for paranoid schizophrenics.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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

Annett, M. (1970) A classification of hand preference by association analysis. British Journal of Psychology, 61, 303–21.Google Scholar
Annett, M. (1976) A coordination of hand preference and skill replicated. British Journal of Psychology, 67, 587–92.Google Scholar
Bakan, P., Dibb, G. & Reed, P. (1973) Handedness and birth stress. Neuropsychologia, 11, 363–6.Google Scholar
Barry, R. J. & James, A. L. (1978) Handedness in autistics, retardates, and normals of a wide age range. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 8, 315–23.Google Scholar
Blakemore, C. & Pettigrew, J. D. (1970) Eye dominance in the visual system. Nature, 225, 426–9.Google Scholar
Boklage, C. E. (1977) Schizophrenia, brain asymmetry development and twinning: Cellular relationship with etiological and possibly prognostic implications. Biological Psychiatry, 12, 1935.Google Scholar
Boucher, J. (1979) Hand preference in autistic children and their parents. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 7, 177–87.Google Scholar
Changule, V. B. & Master, R. S. (1981) Impaired cerebral dominance and schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 23–4.Google Scholar
Colby, K. M. & Parkison, C. (1977) Handedness in autistic children. Journal of Autism and Childhood schizophrenia, 7, 39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crovitz, H. F. & Zener, K. (1962) A group–test for assessing hand and eye dominance. American Journal of Psychology, 75, 271–6.Google Scholar
Dvirskii, A. E. (1976) Functional asymmetry of the cerebral hemispheres in clinical types of Schizophrenia. Neuroscience and Behavioral Physiology. 7, 236–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Etevenon, P., Pidoux, P., Rioux, P. et al (1979) Intra- and inter–hemispheric EEG differences quantified by spectral analysis: comparative study of two groups of schizophrenics and a control group. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 60, 5768.Google Scholar
Farina, A., Garmezy, N., & Barry, H. (1963) Relationship of marital status to incidence and prognosis of schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 624–30.Google Scholar
Fleminger, J. J., Dalton, R. & Standage, K. F. (1977a) Handedness in psychiatric patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 448–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fleminger, J. J., Dalton, R. & Standage, K. F. (1977) Age as a factor in the handedness of adults. Neuropsychologia, 15, 471–3.Google Scholar
Flor-Henry, P. (1976) Lateralized temporal-limbic dysfunction and psychopathology. Annals of New York Academy of Sciences, 280, 777–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gruzelier, J. (1981) Hemispheric imbalances masquerading as paranoid and non-paranoid syndromes? Schizophrenia Bulletin, 7, 662–73.Google Scholar
Gur, R. E. (1977) Motoric laterality imbalance in schizophrenia: A possible concomitant of left hemispheric dysfunction. Archives of General Psychiatry, 34, 33–7.Google Scholar
He'Caen, H. & Ajuriaguerra, J. (1964) Lefthandedness. New York: Grune and Statton.Google Scholar
Johnstone, J., Galin, D. & Herron, J. (1979) Choice of handedness measures in studies of hemispheric specialization. International Journal of Neuroscience, 9, 7180.Google Scholar
Kerschner, J. R. (1974) Ocular–manual laterality and dual hemisphere specialization. Cortex, 10, 293302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krynicki, V. E. (1978) Cerebral dysfunction in repetitively assaultive adolescents. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 166, 5967.Google Scholar
Krynicki, V. E. & Nahas, A. B. (1979) Differing lateralized perceptual motor patterns in schizophrenic and non-psychotic children. Perceptual Motor Skills, 49, 603–10.Google Scholar
Leiber, L. & Axelrod, S. (1982) Not all sinistrality is pathological. Cortex, 17, 259–72.Google Scholar
Lerner, J., Nachshon, I. & Carmon, A. (1977) Responses of paranoid and non–paranoid schizophrenics in a nonparanoid dichotic listening task. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 164, 247–52.Google Scholar
Lishman, W. A. & McMeekan, E. R. L. (1976) Hand preference patterns in psychiatric patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 129, 158–66.Google Scholar
Luchins, D. J., Weingerger, D. R. & Wyatt, R. J. (1979) Anomalous lateralization associated with a milder form of schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 1598–9.Google ScholarPubMed
McMeekan, E. R. L. & Lishman, W. A. (1975) Retest reliabilities and interrelationships of the Annett Hand Preference Questionnaire and the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. British Journal of Psychology, 66, 53–9.Google Scholar
Nasrallah, H. A., Keelor, K., Van Schroeder, C. et al (1981) Motoric lateralization in schizophrenic males. American Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 1114–15.Google ScholarPubMed
Nasrallah, H. A., Keelor, K., Van Schroeder, C. McCalley-Whitters, M. & Kuperman, S. (1982) Neurologic differences between paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics: Part I Sensory–motor lateralization. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 43, 305–6.Google Scholar
Oddy, H. C. & Lobstein, T. J. (1972) Hand and eye dominance in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 120, 331–2.Google Scholar
Orme, J. E. (1970) Left-handedness, ability and emotional instability. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, 87–8.Google Scholar
Palmer, R. D. (1963) Hand differentiation and psychological functioning. Journal of Personality, 31, 445–61.Google Scholar
Piran, N., Bigler, E. D. & Cohen, C. (1982) Motoric laterality and eye dominance suggest unique pattern of cerebral organization in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 1006–10.Google Scholar
Porac, C. & Coren, S. (1976) The dominent eye. Psychological Bulletin, 83, 880–97.Google Scholar
Raczkowski, D., Kalat, J. W. & Nebes, R. (1974) Reliability and validity of some handedness questionnaire items. Neuropsychologia, 12, 43–7.Google Scholar
Satz, P. (1972) Pathological left–handedness: An explanatory model. Cortex, 8, 121–35.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1978) Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) for a Selected Group of Functional Disorders, 3rd ed., New York: Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
Swiercinsky, D. P. (1977) Significance of crossed eye-hand dominance for the adult neuropsychological evaluation. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 165, 134–8.Google Scholar
Taylor, P. J., Dalton, R. & Fleminger, J. J. (1980) Handedness in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 375–83.Google Scholar
Taylor, P. J., Dalton, R. & Fleminger, J. J. et al (1982) Differences between two studies of hand preference in psychiatric patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 166–73.Google Scholar
Walker, H. A. & Birch, H. G. (1970) Lateral preference and right-left awareness in schizophrenic children. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 151, 341–51.Google Scholar
Zamora, E. N. & Kaelbling, R. (1965) Memory and electroconvulsive therapy. American Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 546–54.Google Scholar
Zigler, E. & Levine, J. (1973) Premorbid adjustment and paranoid-nonparanoid status in schizophrenia; a further investigation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 82, 189–99.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.