The perception of the passage of time among death-involved hospital patients.

The present study attempted to evaluate the extent of the relationship between death involvement and temporal orientation among hospitalized suicidal, terminal, geriatrically ill, and normal patients. Their perception of the passage of time was evaluated by (a) behavioral estimations of elapsed time and (b) a survey of their opinions concerning the passage of time. The latter method included an evaluation of various consequences of the rate of time passage. The results indicated that the suicidal patients, closely followed by the geriatrically ill, overestimated time intervals to a much greater extent than did the normal and terminal patients. The suicidal subjects expressed a great deal of impulsiveness and described themselves as feeling miserable to a much greater degree than did the other groups.