Creativity and mental illness: prevalence rates in writers and their first-degree relatives.
Rates of mental illness were examined in 30 creative writers, 30 matched control subjects, and the first-degree relatives of both groups. The writers had a substantially higher rate of mental illness, predominantly affective disorder, with a tendency toward the bipolar subtype. There was also a higher prevalence of affective disorder and creativity in the writers' first-degree relatives, suggesting that these traits run together in families and could be genetically mediated. Both writers and control subjects had IQs in the superior range; the writers excelled only on the WAIS vocabulary subtest, confirming previous observations that intelligence and creativity are independent mental abilities.
D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics; D003405:Creativity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D014825:Vocabulary; D014888:Wechsler Scales; D014956:Writing