Why are people with bipolar disorder creative? A hunt for mechanisms

What is it about?

There is good evidence that people with bipolar disorder show high levels of creativity. This work is designed to understand more about the types of creativity they show, and what types of mechanisms might help explain that advantage. Not everyone with bipolar disorder was highly creative-- instead, there were some people with bipolar disorder who showed very high creativity. Hypomanic symptoms were not related to more creativity.

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Why is it important?

Studies with more than one million people show that those with bipolar disorder are more likely to succeed in creative occupations. We don't know much about why that happens though. Sometimes clients believe that hypomania and good moods will drive more creativity; this did not appear to be the case.