Title: Bipolar Disorder and Creativity | Psychology Today
Headings: Bipolar Disorder and Creativity
Neel Burton M.D.
Bipolar Disorder and Creativity
What explains the link between bipolar disorder and creativity?
THE BASICS

Content: Although she found no history of schizophrenia amongst the authors, she did find an unexpectedly strong history of mood disorders: 80 per cent of her sample of authors had experienced at least one episode of major depression, hypomania, or mania, compared to only 30 per cent of a matched control group. Andreasen followed-up the authors for the next 15 years and found that 43 per cent of them had bipolar disorder compared to only 10 per cent of the control group and 1 per cent of the general population. During the 15 years of the follow-up study, two of the authors committed suicide. For Andreasen, 'Issues of statistical significance pale before the clinical implications of this fact'. The Royal Academy Study
In 1989 the psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison (who herself suffers from bipolar disorder) surveyed 47 British authors and visual artists from the British Royal Academy and found that 38 per cent had been treated for a mood disorder. In particular, half of the poets in her sample had needed medication or hospitalization. Responding to questions about the role of very intense moods in the creative process, many participants in the study reported changes in mood, cognition (thinking), and behaviour either preceding or coinciding with creative episodes. The most common such changes were ‘increases in enthusiasm, energy, self-confidence, speed of mental association, fluency of thoughts and elevated mood, and a strong sense of well-being’. Participants also reported a noticeably decreased need for sleep and feelings of elation, excitement, and anticipation.