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Artistic talent may really be linked to a higher likelihood of experiencing mental health conditions, according to a study of people in Sweden.

The Greek philosopher Plato noted that creative types often seemed to possess 鈥渄ivine madness鈥澛犫�� a stereotype later applied to Vincent Van Gogh, Salvador Dal铆 and Edvard Munch. However, good studies on the subject have been lacking.

Now at Kings College London and his colleagues have pored over the health and education records of the entire population of Sweden, focusing on the mental health of people who had done subjects like art, music or drama at university.

Art students

They found that those who had studied an artistic subject were 90聽per cent more likely to be hospitalised for schizophrenia, compared with the general population. Such people were also 62 per cent more likely to be admitted for bipolar disorder, and 39 per cent more likely to be admitted for depression.

These hospitalisations usually occurred after university, most commonly in people鈥檚 mid-30s. Those with law degrees did not have the same elevated risks, suggesting psychiatric conditions are not simply linked to university education, says MacCabe.

The findings are consistent with聽 of 86,000 people in Iceland, which found that artists, musicians and other creative professionals were slightly more likely to have genetic variants linked to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

It may be that the same genetic variants that unleash creativity can also trigger mental conditions, says MacCabe. 鈥淐reativity often involves linking ideas or concepts in ways that other people wouldn鈥檛 think of,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut that鈥檚 similar to how delusions work聽鈥� for example, seeing a connection between the colour of someone鈥檚 clothes and being part of an MI5 conspiracy.鈥�

Slightly more common

People who feel things deeply may have more internal creative inspiration but greater emotional instability, says MacCabe. 鈥淪omeone who is moved to tears by looking at a painting may have greater artistic sensitivity but also be more vulnerable to depression,鈥� he says.

But the study has some limitations, including the way it used arts degrees as a proxy for creativity. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not ideal because many highly creative people are not studying art,鈥� says Shelley Carson at Harvard University.

Artists shouldn鈥檛 feel too worried because the risks are small, says Jeremy Hall at Cardiff University. In the Sweden study, schizophrenia still only affected 1 in 115 artistic people.

鈥淢y advice to artists would be the same as to anyone else worried about developing psychosis,鈥� says Hall. 鈥淒on鈥檛 smoke cannabis and try to lead a generally healthy life.鈥�

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淐reative people have more mental health issues鈥�