Psychopathology in paintings: a meta-analysis of studies using paintings by psychiatric patients.

We classified 242 reliable scales from 12 art-based studies of psychiatric patients into 14 qualitative categories and also by three types of decision: form, objective or subjective content. We used meta-analytic techniques to combine and compare different results from studies testing the asssociation of art characteristics with psychopathology. Distinctions between controls and patients were more apparent than those between diagnoses. The largest effects distinguished patients and controls on categories of content, body details, energy and media control. Diagnostic groups were differentiated on energy and complexity. There were other less distinct differences for both types of comparison. There were serious criticisms of the quality of the literature, and a lack of information on validity and reliability, but this study suggests that art characteristics do relate to psychopathology.