Your dominant hand holds clue to mental wellbeing? Study links non-right-handedness with poor mental health

Your dominant hand tells a lot about your mental health and brain development. A study established a link between your hand preference and mental conditions.

Everyone has a dominant hand that they naturally prefer when doing basic tasks like writing, eating, or pulling things. For the majority, it's the right hand; for others, it's the left, or in some cases, both. Interestingly, this simple, natural preference of the dominant hand can provide crucial insights into mental wellbeing and even be associated with certain clinical mental conditions.

There's a link between your dominant hand and mental wellbeing.(Shutterstock)

A study published in the Journal of Psychological Bulletin revealed that those who are non-right-handed, meaning left-handed or mixed-handness, like ambidextrous, using both left and right hands, are more likely to show mental or neurodevelopmental health conditions.

Non-right-handed people are vulnerable to poor mental health

People who are mixed-handed show a higher likelihood of mental health conditions.(Shutterstock)

The study examined data of people, looking at their mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders, along with their dominant hand preferences, whether they were right-handed, left-handed, or mixed-handed.

The study's findings were able to establish a link. People with conditions like autism, schizophrenia, ADHD, and intellectual disability were 1.5 times more likely not to have a right-dominant hand. 

Moreover, it's not just about being left-handed. In fact, those who are mixed-handed (people who use both hands) showed higher risks of these kinds of mental and neurodevelopmental health condition diagnoses.

Why does this happen?

It is interesting how hand preference has a connection to mental health. What does the dominant hand have to say about mental health? The study shed light on this, along with its findings, and showed how your dominant hand is essentially linked to how the brain is organised. This is particularly true for brain regions that regulate motor and language skills. Primarily, the majority of mental conditions depend on how brain regions work and, in general, how the brain is wired. The dominant hand (or hands, in the case of ambidextrous individuals) can reveal a lot about this.

The study explained how this link is stronger for mental conditions that begin early in life, like dyslexia, autism, or ADHD. This makes sense because childhood is when a person typically develops a dominant hand. There’s a parallel between how one chooses their dominant hand and how these conditions affect brain development, indicating that the brain’s development under these disorders also influences which hand a person uses for day-to-day activities.

But this is not something to fret over, as being non-right-handed does not mean someone will develop a mental health condition. In fact, it is a small clue that shows how the brain develops, and hand preference is just a clue, not a diagnosis.

Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.