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Creative people are more likely to suffer from mental illnesses
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Swedish scientists from Karolinska University have proven a link between creative activity and a predisposition to mental illness.
People with creative talents have an increased risk of developing bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Experts conducted a large-scale study to identify the links between mental health and artists.
Earlier research by the team of specialists provided grounds to assert that many artists and scientists come from families with a history of mental disorders, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
In this study, scientists analyzed the condition of almost 1.2 million people - not only inpatients in psychiatric hospitals, but also people undergoing outpatient treatment, as well as their families, including cousins. The data obtained were compared with a healthy control group.
The findings confirmed previous findings that some mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder, are more common in families where there are people with artistic or scientific tendencies.
In addition, experts have found that gifted people are prone to suicidal behavior and commit suicide 50% more often. Scientists have also found that many relatives of people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, nervous anorexia and autism were among those who connected their lives with art.
The researchers note that the findings suggest a need to reconsider the approach to treating mental illness.
"If we look at this situation from the other side, we will see that some phenomena associated with the patient's illness are even useful, so to speak," says the lead author of the study, Simon Chiaga. "In this case, doctors should reconsider their treatment policy. In psychiatry, there is a tradition of treating the patient with all our might and not paying attention to anything else, considering all phenomena as a consequence of the disease, and therefore abnormal and in need of treatment."
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