Journal article
Creativity and mental illness: prevalence rates in writers and their first-degree relatives
The American journal of psychiatry, Vol.144(10), pp.1288-1292
10/1987
DOI: 10.1176/ajp.144.10.1288
PMID: 3499088
Abstract
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.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Creativity and mental illness: prevalence rates in writers and their first-degree relatives
- Creators
- N C Andreasen - Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City 52242
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- The American journal of psychiatry, Vol.144(10), pp.1288-1292
- Publisher
- United States
- DOI
- 10.1176/ajp.144.10.1288
- PMID
- 3499088
- ISSN
- 0002-953X
- eISSN
- 1535-7228
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 10/1987
- Academic Unit
- Psychiatry; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984004184702771
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