The Surprising Link Between Creativity and Schizophrenia

Creative people—or at least those with degrees in creative fields—have a 90 percent higher chance of being diagnosed with schizophrenia than people working in non-creative fields, according to a new study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry. It also found that artistic types are 62 percent more likely to have bipolar disorder, and 39 percent more likely to have depression.

Researchers at King's College London mined a registry of 4.5 million people in Sweden and found links between those who had studied an artistic field (like music or art) and those who had been hospitalized for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression, compared to the general population. Schizophrenia occurs in about 1 percent of the general population.

But that doesn't mean that creativity causes mental illness, as Big Think points out. As scientists like to say, correlation does not equal causation. In the current study, the researchers say the link can be explained by the fact that the brains of creative people may function differently. "Creativity often involves linking ideas or concepts in ways that other people wouldn't think of," James MacCabe, the lead researcher, told New Scientist. "But that's similar to how delusions work—for example, seeing a connection between the color of someone's clothes and being part of an MI5 [UK security service] conspiracy."

This isn't the first study to examine the relationship between creativity and mental illness—and not everyone is convinced that such a relationship exists—but the King's College researchers say the huge scope of their study is different. "High-quality epidemiological evidence has been lacking," they write.

A similar study of the Swedish population from 2011 found a link between bipolar disorder and those working in a creative field, but found no link for schizophrenia or depression. And in 2015, a controversial study by the CEO of a biological research company purportedly found that people working in creative fields were more likely to carry the genetic variants for mental illness. However, those variants only had a tiny effect on creativity—less than 1 percent.

[h/t Big Think]