ムラヤマ ノリオ    Murayama Norio
   村山 憲男
   所属
人間社会学部 心理学科
 
生活機構研究科 心理学専攻
 
生活心理研究所 所属教員
 
生活機構研究科 生活機構学専攻
   職種
准教授
言語種別 英語
発行・発表の年月 2016/07
形態種別 学術雑誌
査読 査読あり
標題 Characteristics of depression in community-dwelling elderly people as indicated by the tree-drawing test
執筆形態 共著
掲載誌名 Psychogeriatrics
掲載区分国外
巻・号・頁 16,pp.225-232
著者・共著者 ◎Norio MURAYAMA, Tadashi ENDO, Koichiro INAKI, Shinsai SASAKI, Yuko FUKASE, Kazumi OTA, Eizo ISEKI, Hirokuni TAGAYA
概要 Background: The tree-drawing test (TDT) is a typical projective method, but previous studies have paid little attention to it for elderly people. We investigated the characteristics of depression in community-dwelling elderly people as indicated by the TDT.
Methods: This study was a complete enumeration survey of elderly people conducted through home visits. The contents of the survey included gender, age, presence or absence of housemates, frequency of going out, the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale, and TDT. The subjects were divided into three groups (normal, depressed tendency, and depressed) according to the total 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale score.
Results: In TDT, no significant difference was observed in drooping crown, shadow of the whole tree, or shadow near the base, which have been regarded as indices of depression in younger people. However, the values concerning the size of the tree, such as the height and width of the whole tree, height and width of the crown, and number of occupied areas (of the paper), were significantly lower in the depressed group than in the other groups. In addition, the width of the trunk was significantly smaller in the depressed group than in the normal group. Subjects were classified as being in a 'depressed state' if they used 40 or fewer areas for drawing (i.e. occupied areas) and a 'non-depressed state' if they used 41 or more areas. This enabled depression to be detected (sensitivity: 71.4%; specificity: 79.9%).
Conclusions: The size of the tree in TDT is suggested to reflect characteristics of depression in elderly people, such as introversion, reserve, antisocial attitude, a feeling of inferiority, weakness of ego, and lack of vigour. Furthermore, the numbers of occupied areas were found to be relatively useful in detecting depression in elderly people.