Editor’s note: “General Leia” meant a lot to me personally, and the real Carrie Fisher even more so. Her frank attitude and openness about her mental health made such an impact on so many people, I wanted to do something special in her honour this May the Fourth. I asked Sarah, our amazing research librarian, to see what she could muster. — AH
It’s May the Fourth—Happy Star Wars Day! In celebration of Carrie Fisher, see below for selected research on creativity and mental health.
Creativity and Bipolar Disorder: Touched by Fire or Burning with Questions?
From Clinical Psychology Review 2012 Feb;32(1):1-12.
• This article provides a critical review of the evidence on the association between bipolar disorder and creative accomplishment.
Access at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3409646/
Creativity and Mental Disorder: Family Study of 300,000 People with Severe Mental Disorder
From the British Journal of Psychiatry 2011 Nov;199(5):373-9
• This article addresses the long-standing belief that creativity is coupled with psychopathology and investigates whether any such association is the result of environmental or genetic factors.
Access at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21653945
Genetic Variation Links Creativity to Psychiatric Disorders
From Nature Neuroscience 2015 Jul;18(7):928-9
• This research article addresses whether creativity and psychiatric disorders might be associated through common variation in the genome.
Access at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590283/
The Relationship Between Creativity and Mood Disorders
From Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience 2008;10(2):251-5.
• This article addresses how clinicians who treat creative individuals with mood disorders must also confront a variety of challenges, including the fear that treatment may diminish creativity.
Access at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18689294