Creativity is linked to ambition in patients with bipolar disorder, according to study results published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Sheri L. Johnson, Ph.D., and her colleagues in the department of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, performed two studies: The first assessed accomplishment in 22 patients with bipolar disorder who self-identified as highly creative; the second study examined creative accomplishment and mania risk in 221 undergraduates.
The results from the first study showed that WASSUP scores, a measure of mania risk, were higher in highly creative bipolar patients (27.45) than in normative bipolar patients (14.10) and patients with no mood disorder (9.06). The second study found that mania risk and ambition were both linked to greater creativity, the authors reported.
“Findings across two studies strongly suggest that across the bipolar spectrum, ambition and creativity are linked,” Dr. Johnson and her associates wrote.
Read the full article in the Journal of Affective Disorders.