Differences in drawing characteristics between young people with and without depression from a suicide prevention perspective: Using the Landscape Montage Technique, the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, and the Sentence Completion Test :
The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of the Landscape Montage Technique (LMT) in young people with depression using Question 19 on the frequency of suicidal ideation in the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS_Q19) and descriptions of the stimulus word “suicide” in the Sentence Completion Test (SCT), with the goal of suicide prevention. Subjects were 30 young patients in their 20s with depression receiving outpatient psychiatric care serving as the depression group and 48 university students in the same age category serving as healthy controls. In the SDS_Q19, nine people (30%) in the depression group responded with “most, or all of the time,” which is the highest score for the frequency of suicidal ideation. Although none (0%) of the controls gave this response, 14 (29%) scored either two or three points. A comparison of the groups revealed no associations between the composition type or use of color in the LMT and either the SDS_Q19 score or description of “suicide”in the SCT. Compared to controls, however, subjects with depression tended to have LMT compositions that were insufficient and flat and use of color that was characterized by conspicuous white space and only partial coloring of items. In addition, the data suggested that “sky” coloring may have been a characteristic in the LMT among subjects with depression who scored high on the frequency of suicidal ideation. The sample size was small, so further research is needed.
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