body image disturbance represented in individuals draw-a-person test in a group of schizophrenic patients and healthy individuals

objectives : body image is defined as image and feelings of an individual about size, form and parts of his or her body. the present study aimed to investigate the body image disturbance in a group of patients. method: the present descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with a group of patients with diagnosis of schizophrenia (12 females and 15 males) and a group of subjects without any psychiatric disorder (15 females and 15 males). the two groups were matched for age, years of formal education, marital status, job and physical illness. chi-square analysis was used for statistical evaluation, furthermore, goodenough scoring system was utilized for estimating 10, and mchover method was used for psychological assessment. results: the results showed that the patient group drew persons with a number of errors in contrast to the control group (omission of parts, placing the parts in inappropriate positions and size, deformation of shapes of parts, etc.), furthermore. patients and the control group were different in their scores for 10 in the goodenough scoring system. conclusion: the findings suggested that schizophrenic patients my have impaired body concept .