Human figure drawings in the evaluation of severe adolescent suicidal behavior

Objective: To evaluate the reliability of using certain indicators derived from human figure drawings to distinguish between suicidal and nonsuicidal adolescents. Method: Ninety consecutive admissions to an adolescent inpatie nt unit were assessed. Thirty-nine patients were admitted because of suicid al behavior and 51 for other reasons. All subjects were given the Human Fig ure Drawing (HFD) test. HFD was evaluated according to the method of Pfeffe r and Richman, and the degree of suicidal behavior was rated by the Child S uicide Potential Scale. Results: The internal reliability was satisfactory HFD indicators correlated significantly with quantitative measures of suici dal behavior; of these indictors specifically, overall impression of the ev aluator enabled the prediction of suicidal behavior and the distinction bet ween suicidal and nonsuicidal inpatients (p < .001). A group of graphic ind icators derived from a discriminant analysis formed a function, which was a ble to identify 84.6% of the suicidal and 76.6% of the nonsuicidal adolesce nts correctly. Many of the items had a regressive quality. Conclusions: The HFD is an example of a simple projective test that may have empirical reli ability. It may be useful for the assessment of severe suicidal behavior in adolescents.