An Intro---A History of Bipolar Disorder & Schizophrenia Linked to Creativity

[alfreda89]

A big study (40 years, 1.2 million patients and their relatives) shows certain mental illnesses are more common among artists and scientists. The study also indicates that these illnesses can run in families.

Not a big surprise, eh? Rather confirming casual suspicion.

[Edit: I marked these articles so I could read them later, as I'm in grant deadline hell right now. A respected LJ friend reports back below that these aren't very well written articles. So -- when I have time, I'll be looking for more on this study. Think of this as a place marker -- that we want more info later.]

CBS News introduces the topic, with links to several Live Science articles on the study, creative people, and how some feel bipolar condition does have some positive effects.

Comments

[tylik.livejournal.com]

Well, drat. I might have to go track down the actual studies, because while these are areas I'm interested in, as a neurobiologist, the articles the first one linked to? Were pretty awful. (Maybe I just get more crotchety when it gets closer to my field, but... bah.)

It's fairly likely that both apply to my family - at least, there's definitely a lot of bipolar on my dad's side of the family, and schizophrenia seems likely with my mother's side, though that might not be specific enough. As it happens, while I don't signs of either - I so got the long end of the stick on the family neurochemical heritage - low latent inhibition, which is seems fairly likely I have*, is somewhat correlated with schizophrenia, though that correlation breaks down as IQ scores go up.

* I don't say suffer from, because in my case it almost certainly helps me.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Oh, really? Drat indeed on the articles. I glanced at the intro grouping and marked this to read later - the opposite of my usual habit, I generally read things before linking to them. So Live Science is a FAIL as a source site?

Sympathies on the strain running in the family. I am not aware of bipolar or schizophrenia running in my family, but depression definitely does. There are women who were frustrated artists (totally unable to do much with the muse, raising packs of children) who used alcohol medicinally, and yours truly, who has dealt with depression. But I've never needed to go looking for high-powered meds. Fish oil and taking something like Serenity (no longer made, drat their eyes!) or Li-Zyme Forte takes care of it.

A friend has suggested that eating ancestral food may help support certain parts of your DNA expression, so to speak. For example, if you're Welsh, your ancestors ate fish Every Single Day of their lives. So at the very least, you'd better be eating fish oil every day!

I will mark these as substandard articles. If you get around to the original studies before I do, let me know, ok? I am interested in these. Right now I'm in grant hell, and can't get that sucked into any article or article hunting. I'm crafting one of the tricky essays before going to look for records. Urk.

Sorry to have wasted your time (except for finding out that these studies exist.)