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Biomedical subjects

H Wadeson

Publications and source records attributed to H Wadeson.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1976

A comparative study of art expression of schizophrenic, unipolar depressive, and bipolar manic-depressive patients.

The literature on art productions from psychiatric patients consistently suggests that specific graphic characteristics distinguish among various major diagnostic groups. These hypothesized differences are summarized. Systematic collection of art productions as part of separate research programs studying affective psychoses and schizophrenia has enabled us to amass a collection of psychotic patients' drawings which are used in an attempt to evaluate these hypotheses empirically. Art sessions were held with 104 patients hospitalized for affective psychoses and with 62 patients hospitalized for acute schizophrenia at NIH's Clinical Center. Comparing these drawings across diagnostic groups revealed, to our surprise and contrary to extant hypotheses, considerable within-diagnostic group variability and between-group overlap. There were, nonetheless, some trends in the hypothesized directions. These differences, however, disappeared when comparisons were made on a subsample of age-matched patients. This discrepancy between this research and expectations based on the literature is discussed. Our studies indicate that pictorial characteristics are not closely associated with diagnosis. We have, however, found that individual patient's art productions, and their associations to the pictures, are of great value in arriving at a dynamic understanding of the patient, regardless of diagnosis.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1976

Impact of the seclusion room experience.

The seclusion room is a repository of intense feeling and strongly held opinion for members of psychiatric inpatient units. Patients, nurses, and doctors often find themselves in intrapsychic and/or interpersonal conflict over its use and misuse. Perhaps because of general discomfort, relatively little is known about what a patient actually experiences while secluded. In this report, we utilized an unexpected source of information on the meaning of the seclusion room experience for our patients: their art productions. The observations are based upon our therapeutic and research experience with acutely schizophrenic patients hospitalized on an NIMH clinical research unit located in NIH's Clinical Center. On this unit, pharmacotherapy was not used during investigation periods and, in keeping with the unit's treatment philosophy, was used sparingly or not at all during noninvestigative periods. As a result, the seclusion room was used frequently for severe management problems. Systematic collection of art productions was a routine part of the research protocol. Patients attended three individual art therapy sessions: during drug-free periods 2 to 3 weeks after admission, 2 to 3 weeks before discharge, and at follow-up 1 year after admission. The patient was asked to use pastels to draw the following pictures: a free picture (patient's choice), a self-portrait, a picture of his/her psychiatric illness, a picture of any hallucination experienced, and a picture of any delusion experienced. After completing each picture, the patient was encouraged to discuss it. Sixty-two patients were evaluated with this methodology. Particulary noteworthy is the fact that in no instance was a patient requested to draw a picture about a seclusion room experience. Nevertheless, over one third of the patients did so, underscoring the prominence of the experience for them. Furthermore, these pictures did not emerge from a large array of patient art, but from only threee art sessions per patient. The nature of the pictures fell into the following patterns: a) pleasurable hallucinations occurring while in seclusion; b) frightening delusions connected with the experience of seclusion; c) strong nondelusional feelings about being in seclusion (often the picture of the psychiatric illness was a representation of the seclusion room experience); d) special focus on the staff member in attendance outside the seclusion room door. The implications of these graphic expressions are discussed, with particular emphasis on the impact of the seclusion room experience for the patient.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Television in the hospital: programming patients' delusions.

Systematic collection of art products from 55 schizophrenic patients provided unexpected documentation of the impact of television on delusion-formation. Patients' drawings and descriptions demonstrate the ease with which they incorporate TV program material in their psychotic experience. It is suggested that clinicians consider television viewing a relevant variable in the design of treatment programs.

Acute Disease↗