- 23 Mar 2009
In the more than forty years since the discovery and later the widespread use of lithium for manic depression, scientific and clinical case studies have been accumulating rapidly, showing a high rate of severe mood disorders and suicides among artists, composers, sculptors, and writers. Researchers at the University of Kentucky Medical Center reviewed the lives of over a thousand accomplished people in a variety of fields, including Henri Matisse, Aldous Huxley, and Albert Einstein. 17% of the actors and 13% of the poets were manic-depressives—but only about 1% of the scientists. Other studies have found mat manic depression and major depression are as much as ten to thirty times more frequent among noted artists than among the population as a whole.
A study matching thirty members of the Iowa Writers Workshop with thirty nonwriters revealed that 80% of the writers—but only 30% of the non-writers—reported at least one episode of depression’ or manic depression (30% of the writers but only 6% of the controls, were alcoholic). In addition, the parents and siblings of the writers were significantly more creative and more prone to highs and lows than the relatives of the nonwriters. For instance, 20% of the writers’ brothers and sisters, but only 3% of the siblings of the control population, had a mood disorder; 14% of the writers’ siblings had experienced major depression, versus 3% of the control siblings.
This data strongly suggests a genetic link between mania, depression, and artistic creativity.
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- Tags: Anti Depressants
- Category: Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid