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This study explored the hypothesis that body weight is reduced in male children and adolescents with schizoid personality disorder or Asperger's disorder. The body weights of 33 consecutively admitted male subjects with one of these disorders were retrospectively assessed with percentiles for the body mass index (BMI). The mean percentile (+/- SD) for the BMI was 31.6 +/- 27.6 and differed significantly from the expected value of 50 (P<0.001). Ten subjects had a BMI of < or = 10th age percentile. Post hoc comparisons revealed that BMI percentiles were (a) reduced to a similar extent in patients with schizoid personality disorder and Asperger's disorder and (b) reduced to a greater extent in patients with abnormal eating behaviour. During childhood and adolescence both diagnoses are associated with an increased risk of being underweight. Population-based BMI percentiles are useful for detecting associations between specific psychopathological syndromes and body weight.

This study assesses the external validity of schizoid personality against multiple measures of cerebral laterality designed to distinguish between left hemisphere (LH) over-activation, LH damage and inter-hemisphere transfer deficit interpretations of schizotypy. Questionnaire measures of schizoid personality were assessed in an undergraduate population and related to laterality measures of both verbal and nonverbal dichotic listening, haptic inter- and intra-manual matching, employment of left and right hemisphere strategies during the haptic task, lateral eye-movements, and left and right ear auditory thresholds. A high score on a composite index of schizoid personality was significantly related to greater asymmetry (right ear advantage) in verbal dichotic listening, the use of LH strategies, and lower right ear thresholds, an overall pattern of results indicating LH over-activation in schizoids. It is suggested that studies comparing schizophrenic patients with normal controls minimize the likelihood of obtaining group differences if they fail to take into account schizoid personality in the controls.