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Drawing disability in patients with senile dementia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Vanessa Moore  and
Maria A. Wyke
Vanessa Moore*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London
Maria A. Wyke
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
1 Address for correspondence: Ms V. Moore3 Donald Winnicott Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children, Hackney Road, London E2.
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Synopsis

A series of drawing tasks was administered to 15 patients with senile dementia who were assessed for intellectual functioning and severity of dementia. Their performance was compared with that of 15 elderly control subjects. The demented patients' spontaneous drawings were found to be impoverished in comparison with those of the controls. Copies of the same objects included more details, but these tended to be wrongly positioned in space. The performance of the patients with dementia was unlike that reported for patients with focal brain lesions. Significant relations were found between drawing performance and intellectual functioning and severity of dementia. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , February 1984 , pp. 97 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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