Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:54:13.977Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arrigoni, G. & De Renzi, E. (1964). Constructional apraxia and hemispheric locus of lesion. Cortex (Milano) 1, 170–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bender, L. A. (1938). A Visual Motor Gestalt Test and its Clinical Use. American Orthopsychiatric Association Research Monograph No. 3.Google Scholar
Bolton, N., Britton, P. G. & Savage, R. D. (1966). Some normative data on the WAIS and its indices on an aged population. Journal of Clinical Psychology 22, 184–188.3.0.CO;2-N>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cleveland, S. & Dysinger, D. (1944). Mental deterioration in senile psychosis. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 39, 368–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, D. & Eisdorfer, C. (1979). Cognitive theory and the assessment of change in the elderly. In Psychiatric Symptoms and Cognitive Loss in the Elderly (ed. Raskin, A. and Jarvik, L.), pp. 273–282. Hemisphere: Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Field, J. G. (1960). Some factors affecting the drawing of abstract designs by elderly ‘organic’ and ‘functional’ psychiatric patients. Acta Psychologica 17, 260–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gainotti, G. & Tiacci, L. (1970). Patterns of drawing disability in right and left hemispheric patients. Neuropsychologia 8, 379–384.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gainotti, G., Miceli, G. & Caltagirone, C. (1977). Constructional apraxia in left brain-damaged patients: a planning disorder? Cortex 13, 109–118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grossi, D. & Orsini, A. (1978). The visual crosses test in dementia: an experimental study of 110 subjects. Acta Neurologica 33, 170–174.Google ScholarPubMed
Grossi, D., Orsini, A. & Michele, G. (1978). The copying of geometrie drawings in dementia. Acta Neurologica 33, 355–360.Google Scholar
Hécaen, H. & Assals, G. (1970). A comparison of constructive deficits following right and left hemispheric lesions. Neuropsychologia 8, 289–303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychiatric Teaching Committee (1973). Notes on Eliciting and Recording Clinical Information. Institute of Psychiatry: London.Google Scholar
Jacoby, R. & Levy, R. (1980). CAT scans in the elderly. British Journal of Psychiatry 136, 249–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendrick, D. C. & Post, F. (1967). Differences in cognitive status between healthy psychiatrically ill and diffusely brain-damaged elderly subjects. British Journal of Psychiatry 113, 75–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendrick, D. C., Parboosingh, R. C. & Post, F. (1965). A synonym learning test for use with elderly psychiatric subjects: a validation study. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 4, 63–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lezak, M. D. (1976). Neuropsychological Assessment. Oxford University Press: New York.Google Scholar
Marley, M. L. (1982). Organic Brain Pathology, and the Bender Gestalt Test. A Differential Diagnostic Scoring System. Grune & Stratton: New York.Google Scholar
McFie, J. & Zangwill, O. L. (1960). Visual constructive disabilities associated with lesions of the left cerebral hemisphere. Brain 83, 243–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McFie, J., Piercy, M. F. & Zangwill, O. L. (1950). Visual spatial agnosia associated with lesions of the right cerebral hemisphere. Brain 73, 167–190.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, E. (1977). Abnormal Ageing: The Psychology of Senile and Presenile Dementia. John Wiley and Sons: New York.Google Scholar
Miller, E. & Lewis, P. (1977). Recognition memory in elderly patients. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 86, 84–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore, V. R. (1981). Analysis of Drawing Ability in Adults with Dementia. Unpublished M. Phil Thesis: University of London.Google Scholar
Nelson, H. E. & O'Connell, A. (1978). Dementia: the estimation of premorbid intelligence levels using the New Adult Reading Test. Cortex 14, 234–245.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pattie, A. H. & Gilleard, C. J. (1975). A brief psychogeriatric assessment schedule: validation against psychiatric diagnosis and discharge from hospital. British Journal of Psychiatry 127, 489–493.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pattie, A. H. & Gilleard, C. J. (1976). The Clifton Assessment Schedule – further validation of a psychogeriatric assessment schedule. British Journal of Psychiatry 129, 68–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pattie, A. H. & Gilleard, C. J. (1979). Manual of the Clifton Assessment Procedures for the Elderly. Hodder and Stoughton Education: Sevenoaks.Google Scholar
Pearce, J. & Miller, E. (1973). Clinical Aspects of Dementia. Bailliere Tindall: London.Google Scholar
Piercy, M., Hécaen, H. & Ajuriaguerra, J. de (1960). Constructional apraxia associated with unilateral cerebral lesions. Left and right sided cases compared. Brain 83, 225–242.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schneider, W. & Shiffrin, R. M. (1977). Controlled and automatic human information processing: 1. Detection, search and attention. Psychological Review 84, 1–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, M. B., Post, F., Lofving, B. & Inglis, J. (1956). ‘Memory Function’ in psychiatric patients over sixty. Some methodological and diagnostic considerations. Journal of Mental Science 102, 233–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, M. B., Field, J. G. & Post, F. (1957). An enquiry into the determinants of a differentiation between elderly ‘organic’ and ‘non-organic’ psychiatric patients on the Bender Gestalt Test. Journal of Mental Science 103, 364–375.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walsh, K. (1978). Neuropsychology – a Clinical Approach. Churchill Livingstone: London.Google Scholar
Warrington, E. K. (1969). Constructional apraxia. In Handbook of Clinical Neurology, Vol. 4 (ed. Vinken, P. J. and Bruyn, G. W.), ch. 4. New-Holland: Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Warrington, E. K., James, M. & Kinsbourne, M. (1966). Drawing disability in relation to laterality of lesion. Brain 89, 53–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whitehead, A. (1975). Recognition memory in dementia. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 14, 191–194.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zangwill, O. L. (1964). Psychopathology of dementia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 57, 914–917.Google ScholarPubMed