Creepy art increases heart patients' blood pressure: Works of art meant to hearten patients at a Canadian cardiac hospital as part of a study have been removed after complaints they made people feel tense and increased their blood pressure, a doctor says.
"The idea was to try to brighten up the place and make it alive," Dr Robert Roberts said, head of the Ottawa Heart Institute.
"But our choice of austere paintings instead increased our patients' blood pressure slightly.
"Most people who have a heart attack come here to feel better but the paintings made people feel tense and nurses noticed patients were more agitated while waiting to have their blood pressure tested."
The paintings used in the art therapy experiment, believed to be the first of its kind in Canada, included five portraits by artist Shirley Brown called The Queens.
