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The importance of art therapy in the integrative treatment of recurrent depressive disorder – case study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2020

J. Pavlovic Stojkovic ,
M. Milosavljevic ,
M. Vukovic ,
L. Vidic  and
D. Lecic Tosevski
J. Pavlovic Stojkovic
Affiliation:
Institute of Mental Health, Clinical Department for Crisis Situations and Affective Disorders, Belgrade, Serbia
M. Milosavljevic*
Affiliation:
Institute of Mental Health, Clinical Department for Crisis Situations and Affective Disorders, Belgrade, Serbia
M. Vukovic
Affiliation:
Institute of Mental Health, Clinical Department for Crisis Situations and Affective Disorders, Belgrade, Serbia
L. Vidic
Affiliation:
Institute of Mental Health, Clinical Department for Crisis Situations and Affective Disorders, Belgrade, Serbia
D. Lecic Tosevski
Affiliation:
Institute of Mental Health, Clinical Department for Crisis Situations and Affective Disorders, Belgrade, Serbia Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Medicine, Belgrade, Serbia University of Belgrade, Medical Faculty, Belgrade, Serbia
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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An integrative treatment of patients with affective disorders during hospitalisation also includes art therapy. Art therapy, as a form of expressive therapy, uses the creative process to encourage communication, expression of feelings and offers the space for mutual mirroring. This paper presents a patient who has been treated for approximately five years under the diagnosis of a recurrent depressive disorder (F33) and mixed personality disorder (F61). The patient has been experiencing unrecognised and untreated problems of the depression spectrum since 1993, when he took part in the Yugoslav war. The main issue was the somatic symptoms (headaches, nausea etc). Another major problem during his psychiatric treatment and an additional cause of unsatisfactory therapeutic effect was his inability to verbalise his feelings. In the course of art therapy, when the patient was given a topic “How I see myself in five years”, he drew a man who appeared to be sleeping and explained that he could not see himself in five years’ time, since he would not be alive at the time and that he could not see a way out of the current situation. With the help of a supportive group, for the first time since the beginning of his treatment, he spoke about his thoughts and feelings of hopelessness, sorrow, alienation and loneliness. This enabled new insight into the patient's depression. This clinical example shows how art therapy and reaction of the group, which was supportive and highly associative, can turn the non-verbal into verbal and non-communication into communication.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Type
EV525
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 33 , Issue S1: Abstracts of the 24th European Congress of Psychiatry , March 2016 , pp. S418
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2016
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