PONDER IT
A colour wheel for depression
February 9, 2010
John Sakamoto
While the despondent are often described as blue, people with anxiety and depression are most likely to choose the colour grey to represent their mood, according to a new study out of Britain.
Using something called the Manchester Colour Chart, researchers asked "healthy" people which colour best represented their mood. Most chose a shade of yellow.
When the same question was put to a group of anxious and depressed subjects, most of them chose grey.
The study's results will be published in the open-access journal BMC Medical Research Methodology (www.biomedcentral.com).
"Although there is a large, often anecdotal, literature on colour preferences and the relationship of colour to mood and emotion, there has been relatively little serious research on the subject," Peter Whorwell, Professor of Medicine and Gastroenterology at University Hospital South Manchester, says on the science website www.alphagalileo.org.
Researchers say the main purpose of the Manchester Colour Wheel is to provide an alternative way of asking patients about their condition without having to rely solely on language.
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