Bipolar Disorder, Creativity Show Positive Correlation

Creativity and mood disorders are related, evidence has suggested. For example, some famous composers have been thought by psychiatrist-musician Richard Kogan, M.D., to have had mood disorders (Psychiatric News, April 19, 2002). Also, a number of living artists and writers have reported having mood disorders.

And now both adults with bipolar disorder and their children seem to show greater perceptual creativity than do healthy control subjects.

Kiki Chang, M.D., director of the pediatric bipolar disorders program at Stanford University, and colleagues gave the Barron-Welsh Art Scale (BWAS), a test that measures creativity, to 40 adults with bipolar disorder and 18 adults without the illness. The scoring of this test is based on“ like” and “dislike” responses to figures of varying complexity and symmetry that provide a comparison with preferences indicated by artists. Thirty-eight simple and/or symmetrical figures disliked by artists and 24 more complex and/or asymmetrical figures liked by artists comprise the BWAS's Dislike and Like subscales, respectively; total scores combine responses to these subscales. People whose scores are more in accord with the likes and dislikes of artists are considered as having greater creativity.

Compared with healthy controls, bipolar subjects scored significantly higher on the BWAS Dislike Subscale and higher, although not significantly so, on the BWAS Like Subscale.

Chang and her colleagues also gave the test to 20 children who had a parent with bipolar disorder and who had the disorder themselves; to 20 children who had a parent with bipolar disorder and who had attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) but no bipolar disorder (and who were suspected of showing possible early signs of bipolar disorder); and to 18 healthy control children.

The children with either bipolar disorder or ADHD scored significantly higher than did the healthy controls on the BWAS Dislike Subscale, and higher, although not significantly so, on the BWAS Like Subscale.

Thus, “the results of this study support an association between bipolar disorder and creativity and contribute to a better understanding of possible mechanisms of transmission of creativity in families with genetic susceptibility for bipolar disorder,” the researchers concluded in their report in the November Journal of Psychiatric Research.

In other words, as Chang told Psychiatric News, “We were surprised that both offspring with ADHD and offspring with bipolar disorder had similar levels of this type of creativity. This might indicate that this is either a genetically mediated trait or that it is due to similar creative environments. However, it does not appear to be due to mania itself.”

These results likewise have implications for clinical psychiatrists, Chang believes.

For example, she said, they should realize that children with bipolar disorder who are not doing well academically may have creative talents that can be developed.

Also, she pointed out, just as bipolar individuals seem to dislike the concrete and mildly prefer the complex and abstract, they also seem to have a chaotic lifestyle, since she and her colleagues found in another study that bipolar subjects often experience conflict and disorganization. Yet a simplified, structured lifestyle may be more beneficial to their mental health.

“Finally and most importantly,” she added, “we found a negative correlation of illness duration with this type of creativity; the longer the children were sick, the less creative they were,” Chang stressed. “That would imply that early intervention to prevent this illness.. .could prevent a loss of creativity over time.”

The study was funded by the Heinz C. Prechter Fund for Manic Depression, National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation, and National Institutes of Health.

An abstract of “Creativity in Familial Bipolar Disorder” can be accessed at<www.sciencedirect.com>, by clicking on “Browse A-Z,” then “J,” then“ Journal of Psychiatric Research,” then the November issue. ▪