Probe into Color Preference in Inpatients with Depressive Disorders

摘要

Objectives: To explore the preference of color (abstract and environmental colors) by patients with depression before and after the therapy and the relations between their preferences and depression levels. Methods: The preference for abstract colors and indoor environment color of 195 depression inpatients and 1005 healthy volunteers was successively tested. Before treatment, HAMD/HAMA was used to assess the level of depression and anxiety. With depression patients, and after six weeks of treatment, the same test tools were used to measure the preference of color and the level of depression and anxiety. Results: The most preference of depression patients for abstract color was blue, the most preference of control groups for abstract color was also blue. Their preference for purple was significantly higher than that of the control group (p = 0.023), and their preference for grey was significantly lower than that of the control group (p p p 0.05). The most preference of depression patients for indoor environment color was blue,and their preference for purple was higher than that of the control group (p = 0.014), and their preference for orange was lower than that of the control group (p = 0.005). The preference sequence were consistent before and after therapy (p p = 0.02). Conclusion: The depression patients preferred the cold colors (The most preference of depression patients for color was blue. Their preference for purple was significantly higher than that of the control group. The preference for red and grey decreased after therapy, and the preference for yellow increased after the therapy. A significantly negative correlation was found between yellow preference sequence and HAMD score and between yellow preference sequence and HAMA score. A significantly positive correlation was found between red preference sequence and HAMD score , and a significantly negative correlation was found between blue / white preference sequence and HAMD score). These preferences are related to patients’ depression levels.