Creativity in bipolar disorder: a systematic review

Based on studies of the biographies of artists and on research in which modern diagnostic criteria were applied, it has been suggested that there is a relationship between bipolar disorder (BD) and creativity. Objective: To investigate the relationship between BD and creativity and whether creative capacity varies depending on mood state.

We conducted a systematic search of the scientific literature indexed on the PubMed, ISI Web of Science, PsycINFO, and SciELO databases using the terms "bipolar" OR "bipolar disorder" OR "mania" OR "manic" AND "creativ*". Original studies were selected that investigated samples of at least ten patients with BD using at least one psychometric instrument to assess creativity.

Twelve articles met the selection criteria. The results of comparisons of BD patients with control groups without BD were heterogeneous. BD was not associated with higher levels of creativity than other mental disorders. When comparing BD phases, depression was associated with worse performance on creativity tests and patients in mania (or hypomania) were not distinguished from euthymia patients.

It was not possible to corroborate the hypothesis that individuals with BD are more creative than individuals without psychiatric diagnoses or than patients suffering from other mental disorders, which may be related to the cross-sectional rather than longitudinal designs of virtually all of the clinical studies.