Drawings of depressed inpatients: Intentional and unintentional expression of emotional states

✍ Scribed by Raphaële M. Miljkovitch de Heredia; Ivan Miljkovitch

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 97 KB
• Volume: 54
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9762
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4679(199812)54:8<1029::aid-jclp3>3.0.co;2-d

✦ Synopsis

Twenty-six patients, aged 21 to 63, hospitalized for depression, and 26 control individuals were asked to make a "funny" and a "sad" drawing, which were scored on 22 variables describing their formal aspects and contents. Results show that drawings of individuals with depression differ from those of control participants on a wide range of variables, sometimes very significantly. Prediction of participants' groups based on eight variables obtained by discriminant analysis was correct in 98% of cases. Results support the usefulness of asking for the two kinds of drawings and suggest that depression is better detected through formal aspects of drawings than through their contents.