These college majors have a higher risk of serious mental illness, including depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
People studying artistic subjects like painting, music or drama are 90 percent more likely to be hospitalised for schizophrenia later in life, research reveals.
The epidemiological study adds weight to the argument that creativity is linked to madness.
Among almost 4.5 million Swedish people, those studying creative subjects were also 62 percent more likely to be hospitalised for bipolar disorder.
Similarly, they were 39 percent more likely to be hospitalised for depression.
Hospitalisations were most likely to occur when the person reached their 30s.
Those in the visual arts — like painters, designers, photographers and so on — had the strongest link to mental illness.
The authors write:
“…the association with mental illness was strongest for core creative subjects, especially for visual arts.
It is notable that, in the visual arts, most if not all practitioners are engaged in the creative process, whereas performing arts place more emphasis on interpretation.
Hence, the core creative subjects, particularly visual arts, may capture the concept of creativity most closely, supporting the idea that mental disorder is associated with creativity per se.”
The study was published in the The British Journal of Psychiatry (MacCabe et al., 2018).
