Motor and Sighting Dominance in Chronic Schizophrenics

Abstract

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.

Crossed Hand-Eye Dominance in Male Psychiatric Patients

“…Findings of significant excess of crossed hand-eye dominance in the present sample for schizophrenics support previous findings for schizophrenics with either earlier (Tabaris, et al, 1999) or later chical onset or different subtypes of the disorder (Gureje, 1981;Merrin, 1984). The significantly increased frequency of crossed hand-eye dominance in the patients with heroin addiction and mental retardation in the present study also support previous findings in patients with dyslexia, autism, mental retardation, and other neuropsychiatric diseases for which crossed dominance and cerebral asymmetry have been reported (Metzig, et al, 1975; K e r , LeMay, Rosenberg, & Perlo, 1978;McManus, Murray, Doyle, & Baron-Cohen, 1992).…”

“…Some studies have shown that crossed dominance may indicate a poorly established hemispheric speciahzation (Bryden, 1982) and developmental brain impairment in various ne~rops~chiatric diseases (Corbalis, 1983). Merrin (1984) reported that left-eyedness, particularly in right-handed paranoid schizophrenics, was associated with later age of first hospitalization and a more benign course of the disease, whereas Gureje (1988) found that it is more prevalent in nonparanoid patients with younger age of onset and earlier age of first hospitahzation. Merrin (1984) reported that left-eyedness, particularly in right-handed paranoid schizophrenics, was associated with later age of first hospitalization and a more benign course of the disease, whereas Gureje (1988) found that it is more prevalent in nonparanoid patients with younger age of onset and earlier age of first hospitahzation.…”

“…An excess of crossed hand-eye dominance has been reported for schizophrenics (Oddy & Lobstein, 1972;Krynicki & Nahas, 1979;Shan-Mmg, Deyi, Zhen, Jingsu, & Taylor, 1985;Sakuma, Hoff, & DeLisi, 1996). Merrin (1984) reported that left-eyedness, particularly in right-handed paranoid schizophrenics, was associated with later age of first hospitalization and a more benign course of the disease, whereas Gureje (1988) found that it is more prevalent in nonparanoid patients with younger age of onset and earlier age of first hospitahzation. Recently, Tabaris, Sanjuan, Gomez-Beneyto, and Leal (1999) found that the group of schizophrenics with increased incidence of crossed hand-eye dominance had significant earlier chical onset and smaller brain size than the group of schizophrenics with decreased incidence of hand-eye cross dominance.…”

Is lateral bias anomalous in early-onset schizophrenia? Selected comparisons with normal populations

“…Several studies have failed to find evidence of anomalous eyedness and footedness in adults with schizophrenia (Merrin, 1984;Tiwari and Mandal, 1998), but the present findings conflict with evidence from a cohort study by Cannon et al (1997) who found that preschizophrenic children had excess left eye dominance at age 11 compared with controls, and with reports of reduced right eye and foot preference in young or early-onset patients (Piran et al, 1982;Gureje, 1988).…”

The neurodevelopmental basis of sex differences in schizophrenia

“…Although attempts to assess cerebral laterality in schizophrenics have met with limited success (see Nasrallah et al 1981;Merrin, 1984), left-handedness and crossed dominance have been associated with early onset of illness (Piran et al 1982); inferior social competence (Merrin, 1984); more negative symptomatology (Andreasen et al 1982); and increased VBR and poor performance on neuropsychological tests (Katsanis & Iacono, 1989). Lewine et al (1989) found a correlation between clinical anomalies, reversed visual field preference, and MRI abnormalities in male schizophrenics.…”