Many people believe that there is an association between intelligence and mental illness. And there is. But it probably is not the one you think.
The media has often reported on the idea that mental illness is higher among intelligent people. In a way, there is some truth to this. Mental illness does seem to be prevalent among geniuses, for example. One study demonstrated that there were higher rates of mental health issues among Mensa members.
But this is one study and specifically looks at people who are abnormally high on the intelligence scale. It ignores the wider pattern of evidence that says increased intelligence correlates with better mental health. Wikipedia offers a good roundup of the evidence, but I also provide one below.
A 2016 study in the journal Intelligence found that intelligent youths were more likely to receive a dianogsis of depression at age 50, but less likely to have mental health issues on self-report measures.
A 2006 study found that intelligent people were less likely to have PTSD.
A 2008 study found that intelligent people were less likely to have schizophrenia.
A 2018 study found that intelligent people were less likely to have OCD.
And, perhaps most notably, a Swedish study that used over a million participants concluded that:
Lower intelligence is a risk factor for the whole range of mental disorders and for illness severity.
Of course, the biggest predictor of intelligent is individual difference. Struggling with mental illness says nothing about your intelligence. But the idea that having a mental illness is a sign that we are more intelligent is a myth.
Sorry. I was gutted as well.
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Tags: intelligence, mental health
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 17th, 2019 at 11:00 am and is filed under Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.