Creative People More Likely to Have Mental Illness

According to a large family study of people with severe mental disorders that was published by Kyaga et al. in the British Journal of Psychiatry last year, people with bipolar disorder and siblings of people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder were much more likely to be working in creative professions than people without severe mental illness.

Kyaga talked to Medscape Medical News about the study:

“I think the study stresses the importance of treating all patients individually, and with the aim of finding the optimal treatment with regards to effectiveness, while minimizing the adverse effects that medication can have on positive aspects of psychiatric disorders,” Dr. Kyaga said. “We often encounter the suggestion that lithium reduces creativity in patients with bipolar disorder and that adherence therefore is difficult. Now we can say that it is true that bipolar disorder is in fact associated with increased creativity, but we also know from previous research that terminating treatment with lithium in bipolar disorder will, in the long run, disrupt creative behavior,” he continued. “We therefore need to pay close attention to what patients tell us while being treated, so that we can find a regimen that will work for them to prevent the disastrous consequences of severe psychiatric disorder, while providing them opportunities to uphold their creative behaviors in the long run,” Dr. Kyaga said.

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