Hand preference patterns in psychiatric patients.

A brief survey, using a standardized questionnaire, has been made of hand preference patterns in a series of patients admitted to hospital with functional psychiatric disorders. A small but significant shift towards left hand preference has been observed, more marked in the young patients and virtually confined to the males. Psychotic patients show such a shift more clearly than neurotic or personality disordered patients. Simple genetic factors do not appear to be responsible for these sinistral tendencies. The findings are discussed in relation to possible acquired abnormalities of functional brain organization.