Left-Handers at High Risk of Suffering from Schizophrenia

by Kathy Jones on October 31, 2013 at 7:07 PM

A new study published in the journal SAGE Open suggests that left-handed people are more likely to suffer from psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia rather than mood disorders such as depression.

Researchers observed around 107 patients visiting public psychiatric clinic in an urban, low-income community and found out how many of them were left handed and the type of disorder they were suffering from.

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by symptoms of thought, behavior and social problems.

The researchers found that around 11 percent of those who had been diagnosed with mood disorders were left handed compared to 40 percent of those who suffered from schizophrenia.

"Our results show a strikingly higher prevalence of left-handedness among patients presenting with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, compared to patients presenting for mood symptoms such as depression or bipolar disorder. Our own data showed that whites with psychotic illness were more likely to be left-handed than black patients", the researchers wrote in their report.

Source: Medindia

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