Picturing disturbed body experience: A comparison of body drawings in somatoform disorder and a general population sample

Abstract

Objective Patients with somatic symptom disorder or somatoform disorder are considered to have a troubled relationship to their body that is hard to assess with self-report questionnaires alone. Aim of this study was to examine the value of body drawings as an assessment tool by comparing patients with a general population sample. Methods Compared were objective features of own body drawings from 179 patients referred to treatment for somatoform disorder from an original study and 173 age-and-sex matched persons from the general population. Results Only one of the two original factors was replicated in the general population sample. Groups did not score differently on this factor that reflected details in drawings. Contrary to expectation, the association of observation scores of drawings and self-reported body attitude was not stronger for the general population sample. Analysis in the general population sample tentatively indicated that the degree of identity drawn in the body potentially influences observation scores. Conclusion This comparative study indicates that the two groups picture a similar mean number of details in drawings of their own body. Because both the factor structure and association with self-report measures differed between the groups, scorings of body drawings appear to reflect a different meaning for patients with somatoform disorder and people from the general population.