Creativity and mental disorder: Family study of 300 000 people with severe mental disorder

There is a long-standing belief that creativity is coupled with psychopathology. To test this alleged association and to investigate whether any such association is the result of environmental or genetic factors. We performed a nested case-control study based on Swedish registries. The likelihood of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of psychiatry 2011-11, Vol.199 (5), p.373-379
Main Authors: Kyaga, Simon, Lichtenstein, Paul, Boman, Marcus, Hultman, Christina, Långström, Niklas, Landén, Mikael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Biographies
Bipolar affective disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar Disorder - epidemiology
Bipolar Disorder - genetics
Bipolar Disorder - psychology
Case-Control Studies
Censuses
Cognitive ability
Creativity
Depressive Disorder - epidemiology
Depressive Disorder - genetics
Depressive Disorder - psychology
Female
Genetic factors
Humans
Inpatient care
Intelligence Tests
Male
Medical diagnosis
Medicin och hälsovetenskap
Mental depression
Mental disorders
Middle Aged
Occupations
Occupations - statistics & numerical data
Population
Professions
Psychiatric disorders
Psychiatry
Psychopathology
Psychosis
Psykiatri
Registries
Relatives
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia - epidemiology
Schizophrenia - genetics
Schizophrenic Psychology
Siblings
Sweden - epidemiology
Young Adult
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Summary:There is a long-standing belief that creativity is coupled with psychopathology. To test this alleged association and to investigate whether any such association is the result of environmental or genetic factors. We performed a nested case-control study based on Swedish registries. The likelihood of holding a creative occupation in individuals who had received in-patient treatment for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or unipolar depression between 1973 and 2003 and their relatives without such a diagnosis was compared with that of controls. Individuals with bipolar disorder and healthy siblings of people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder were overrepresented in creative professions. People with schizophrenia had no increased rate of overall creative professions compared with controls, but an increased rate in the subgroup of artistic occupations. Neither individuals with unipolar depression nor their siblings differed from controls regarding creative professions. A familial cosegregation of both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with creativity is suggested.
ISSN:0007-1250
1472-1465
1472-1465
DOI:10.1192/bjp.bp.110.085316