Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia May Share A Genetic Link Via Creativity

New findings published in the journal Nature Neuroscience suggest a potential link between creativity and certain types of mental illnesses in some individuals, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Researchers at King's College London used information from a genetic database known as the deCODE library that consists of DNA code samples taken from Icelandic population. They believe their findings may demonstrate a direct influence on creativity of genes seen in people with certain disorders, including the aforementioned health issues.

Furthermore, previous studies have also suggested that some psychiatric disorders seem to run in families with creative professionals.

For the study, researchers examined 86,292 individuals from the general population of Iceland. Creative individuals were defined as those belonging to the national artistic societies of actors, dancers, visual artists, writers and/or musicians.

Findings revealed that genetic risk scores were higher for both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in those who fell into the "creative" category. Still, the study has been met with some criticism.

"Creativity is simply defined by occupation," psychologist Judith Shlesinger, author of "The Insanity Hoax: Exposing the Myth of the Mad Genius" argued, according to The Verge. "[And this presumes two things. The first is] that there are no creative accountants or lawyers who play music, paint, or dance wonderfully on the weekends, preferring to actually earn a living during the week. [The second is that] everyone who self-defines as a writer, artist, and joins an artistic association, automatically qualifies as unusually creative. [The idea is] scientifically hollow, but convenient for their purposes."

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