The psychopathology of everyday art: a quantitative Study - World ...

Controls: Staff members and nursing students from all participating wards agreed to act
as controls and completed their paintings together with the patient groups, so that control
conditions were identical to those of the patients.
Table 1: Demographics for subjects from all experimental groups
TOTAL Sex M Sex F Age Mean Age S.D.
Entire Population 109 49 60 46.17 16.50
Affective Disorder 18 3 15 58.33 13.02
Schizophrenia 35 22 13 57.8 13.69
Personality
Disorder
9 3 6 32.78 7.51
Drug Abuse 24 15 9 35.96 11.62
Controls (staff) 23 6 17 34.83 9.81
Sample: Table 1 shows demographic statistics: 86 psychiatric patients (43 males, 43
females) formed the patient group. 23 staff members (6 males, 17 females) formed the
control group and painted alongside the patients (49 males, 60 females). The mean age
of the controls compared well with the other groups although there were more females.
Choice of patients
It was not possible, due to the numbers of patients available, to randomise groups and
all suitable available patients 248 within the main county hospital at the time were involved
in the study, most patients were in chronic stages of illness. The patient group available
was quite large and permitted the comparison of general effects against specific effects.
248 Those who were able and willing to paint, for whom there were facilities, and were not on a locked ward
(for security reasons). Paintings were done on the ward and in the occupational therapy dept. 10 wards
from the main hospital and 2 from the city general hospital were involved in the study.
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