Creativity and bipolar disorder

BACKGROUND: Yu Dafu, arguably one of the greatest writers in modern Chinese history, is characterized by critics as having a sentimental and decadent style. His life is clearly marked by mood bipolarity, and it seems that his creativity was affected by extreme emotional states. However, this link remains unclear. METHODS: Yu's self-assessments in his works and letters are analyzed from the perspective of current psychiatric classifications. Examples are extracted from his writing career and habits to help illuminate the relationship between mental disorders and literary creativity...

Bipolar disorder is a lifelong mood disorder characterized by extreme mood swings between mania and depression. Despite fitness costs associated with increased mortality and significant impairment, bipolar disorder has persisted in the population with a high heritability and a stable prevalence. Creativity and other positive traits have repeatedly been associated with the bipolar spectrum, particularly among unaffected first-degree relatives and those with milder expressions of bipolar traits. This suggests a model in which large doses of risk variants cause illness, but mild to moderate doses confer advantages, which serve to maintain bipolar disorder in the population...

INTRODUCTION: Biographical research as well as some controlled studies point out to a relationship between bipolar disorder (BD) and creativity. Neurobiological underpinnings of this relationship are unclear. Although there is no consensus on the definition of creativity, Alternative uses Test (AuT) and Remote Association Test (RAT) are frequently used to measure convergent and divergent creativity. We aimed to examine prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during the RAT and AuT tests in subjects with BD...

The present study investigated the relationship between self-reported creativity and current symptoms of depression and mania. Three hundred and ninety-seven participants previously diagnosed with BD completed an online questionnaire that included demographic and clinical information questions, creativity and self-report measures of depression and hypo/mania over the past week. Those reporting clinically significant depressive symptoms had significantly lower creativity scores than those in the hypo/mania and no current symptom groups...

A potential link between creativity and mental illness has been a longstanding topic for human studies and empirical research. The major problem is defining creativity and establishing its measurable indicators. A few high-quality epidemiological studies have been undertaken and point to a link between creativity and vulnerability to mental illness. Demonstrating such a shared vulnerability could expand our understanding of mental illnesses and open up new avenues of empirical research. In this epidemiological study, we defined scientists (academics) at the universities as individuals assumed to exhibit "more creativity" than the background population...

Bipolar disorder is among the top 10 causes of disability worldwide. It is managed through a combination of medical and psychotherapeutic interventions, but finding an effective treatment is often a long process of trial-and-error, that medical professionals and people diagnosed with this condition engage upon. This article investigates how people diagnosed with bipolar disorder enact lay expertise about the treatment of this condition online. Using De Certeau's (1988) theory of everyday practices, three tactics are identified-complexity, uncertainty, and individualization-through which people diagnosed creatively adapt medical knowledge on bipolar disorder, to render their personal experiences and views on treatment more authoritative...

Creative art therapy (CAT) for severe mental illness (SMI) represents an extremely heterogenous body of literature that encompasses the use of a large variety of creative mediums (i.e. visual art, music, dance, drama, writing) in the treatment of mental disorders. The present review provides a narrative summary of the findings on the use of CAT for the selected SMI, being: schizophrenia, trauma-related disorders, major depression, and bipolar disorder. A database search of PubMed and the Cochrane Library was conducted related to the use of CAT in the treatment of mental disorders published between January 2008 and March 2019...

Delusions are a core feature of psychopathology while fantasy proneness (FP) is a trait that describes a predisposition towards fantastical thinking, vivid mental imagery and an overactive imagination. The relationship between FP and delusional experiences has not yet been examined in the literature. The current study hypothesised that FP would be significantly associated with and predict delusion severity as well as the associated delusional distress, preoccupation and conviction. Ninety-five patients with current psychosis (schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder) were assessed for overall delusional severity using the PANSS (clinician-rated) and the Peters Delusions Inventory (PDI; self-report)...

AIM: The association between bipolar disorder and creativity may be related to symptoms of the disorder itself or personality traits present before the onset. To further explore the relationship between creativity and clinical risk for bipolar disorder, creativity among individuals with a history of depressive disorder and varying risk for future (hypo-)manic episodes was assessed and compared. METHODS: Thirty-eight participants completed the diagnostic process, including Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) Diagnosis, Hamilton Depression Scale and Young Mania Rating Scale...

BACKGROUND: Many studies have addressed the question of whether mental disorder is associated with creativity, but high-quality epidemiological evidence has been lacking.AimsTo test for an association between studying a creative subject at high school or university and later mental disorder. METHOD: In a case-control study using linked population-based registries in Sweden (N = 4 454 763), we tested for associations between tertiary education in an artistic field and hospital admission with schizophrenia (N = 20 333), bipolar disorder (N = 28 293) or unipolar depression (N = 148 365)...

Regarding the notion of putative “best” practices in social neuroscience and science in general, we contend that following established procedures has advantages, but prescriptive uniformity in methodology can obscure flaws, bias thinking, stifle creativity, and restrict exploration. Generating hypotheses is at least as important as testing hypotheses. To illustrate this process, we describe the following exploratory study. Psychiatric patients have difficulties with social functioning that affect their quality of life adversely...

OBJECTIVES: To increase awareness of the sensory changes experienced during hypo/manic and depressive states by those with a bipolar disorder and determine if the prevalence of such features is similar across differing bipolar sub-types. METHODS: We interviewed 66 patients who acknowledged sensory changes during hypo/manic states. They were allocated to bipolar I, bipolar II and soft bipolar diagnostic categories and the prevalence of 10 differing sensory changes was quantified during hypo/manic and depressive phases...

BACKGROUND: Identifying the phenotypic manifestations of increased genetic liability for depression (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD) can enhance understanding of their aetiology. The polygenic risk score (PRS) derived using data from genome-wide-association-studies can be used to explore how genetic risk is manifest in different samples. AIMS: In this systematic review, we review studies that examine associations between the MDD and BD polygenic risk scores and phenotypic outcomes...

The link between creativity, as the highest expression form of human achievement, and bipolar disorder came into focus of scientific investigations and research. Accomplished writers, composers and visual artists show a substantially higher rate of affective disorders, prodominantly bipolar mood disorders, comparing to the general population. Then again, patients afflicted with bipolar II subtype (hypomania and depression), as well as persons presenting the mildest form of bipolar mood swings (cyclothymia) possess higher creative skills...

Prominent cognitive deficits have been documented in bipolar disorder, and multiple studies suggest that these deficits can be observed among non-affected first-degree relatives of those with bipolar disorder. Although there is variability in the degree of cognitive deficits, these deficits are robustly relevant for functional outcomes. A separate literature documents clear difficulties in emotionality, emotion regulation, and emotion-relevant impulsivity within bipolar disorder, and demonstrates that these emotion-relevant variables are also central to outcome...

Background: Efficacy of inhaled loxapine 5 or 10 mg in treating agitation was shown using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale - Excited Component (PANSS-EC) in two Phase III randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials in 344 agitated patients with schizophrenia and 314 patients with bipolar I disorder (Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT00628589, NCT00721955). Aims: To examine the five individual items comprising the PANSS-EC and the percentage of patients achieving a clinical response (reduction of ≥40%) in PANSS-EC (Response-40) for these two studies...

The psychopathological condition of Robert Schumann has been a prominent object of study in psychiatry since his hospitalization in 1854. Renowned psychiatrists have diagnosed Schumann with syphilis, schizophrenia, and bipolar and personality disorders. Until today, these analyses of his symptomatology have led to contradictory results. Recent discussion has suggested that his hospitalization was due to professional failure and separation wishes on the part of his wife, her family, and her friends. In line with this hypothesis is the opinion that the separation insisted upon by Clara Schumann was reinforced by the economic interests of the psychiatrist who kept Schumann in custody for 2 years until his death in 1856...

BACKGROUND: Transition from at-risk state to full syndromal mental disorders is underexplored for unipolar and bipolar disorders compared with psychosis. AIMS: Prospective, trans-diagnostic study of rates and predictors of early transition from sub-threshold to full syndromal mental disorder. METHOD: One-year outcome of 243 consenting youth aged 15-25 years with a sub-syndromal presentation of a potentially severe mental disorder. Survival analysis and odds ratio (OR) for predictors of transition identified from baseline clinical and demographic ratings...

BACKGROUND: Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is considered to be a subtype of depression. AIMS: To compare the clinical picture of SAD to non-seasonal affective disorders (non-SADs). METHOD: Diagnoses according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) were established in 2185 participants of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety. The Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire was administered to diagnose SAD...

Cariprazine, a potent dopamine D3 and D2 receptor partial agonist antipsychotic with preferential binding to D3 receptors, is Food and Drug Administration approved for treating schizophrenia and manic or mixed episodes of bipolar I disorder. A post-hoc safety/tolerability analysis of data from the four acute trials in the cariprazine schizophrenia clinical development program (NCT00404573; NCT00694707; NCT01104766; NCT01104779) was carried out using the overall safety population (all patients who received ≥1 dose of study drug) and modal daily dose subgroups (1...