Sometimes, writing is tough. The passion isn’t there, and every word is a struggle. We’ve all had those moments when forced to do something artistic or creative, whether it be writing or drawing or playing an instrument (or anything really). We’re just not into it, we don’t feel the pulse of the art pounding in our blood. Yet at other times, it’s like our blood rushes in a massive torrential pour, as if it had been held back by a massive dam for a thousand years. Whether its a subject that makes you jump for joy, a song you can head-bang to, or some other Picasso, some things just burst forth in a sudden and fervent explosion of productivity and creativity.

A Tongue Twister: Are Artists' Artistry Artful?

I think we’ve all had those moments when the pieces all click together, and a piece of work flows from us as easily as a hot knife through butter. During those moments, we feel alive, throbbing with a vibrant energy as our whole being is focused onto a single task. It’s an exhilarating feeling, yet at the same time, when you finally come down out of this strange natural high, it feels as though there was something slightly wrong about that, as if those who are capable of reaching that level often must have something wrong with them.

This is a popular idea. Edgar Allen Poe alluded to this creative madness in his work, ‘The Tell Tale Heart.’

“The disease had sharpened my senses –not destroyed –not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?”

Art and creativity have always had their associations with mental issues and powerful personalities. There have always been the stereotypical caricatures of artists:

1) The outcast, socially ill-fitting writer.

2) The out-of-control musician.

3) The quirky and always slightly off painter.

4) The obsessed photographer, whether of the strange shut-in type or the perpetually traveling variety.

Need I go on?

However, these associations have not been without reason. Many famous individuals have been associated with mental disorder. Examples include Vincent Van Gogh and Ludwig Von Beethoven. Others, such as Poe or Richard Wagner, were known to be either troubled or highly passionate, flamboyant individuals.

And recently, a pretty intense population study spearheaded by some pretty cool Swedish guys has actually corroborated some of these general associations. The field has long been investigated and various findings thrown around left and right; unfortunately most of those have been marred by awful experimental design. This Swedish study is an exception. Using a forty year population study encompassing more than a million people, the results are finally in, and some people may be a little disappointed: generally, some associations are there, but they certainly aren’t that strong.

Overall, creative professions were not associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorders (except for a mild increase in bipolar disorder), despite there being a link between a familial history of disorders and profession. In other words, families of those people who did creative things were more likely to suffer from psychiatric conditions, on average. Although creative professions as a whole had no correlation with disorder, writers were another story entirely. Apparently, writers generally get the short end of the stick when it comes to mental health, as they were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In addition, they were at a noticeably higher risk for suicide.

Yet despite these findings, a part of me recoils at the idea of “creative” people being more likely to suffer from things like bipolar disorder. What is creativity anyways? Creativity is being able to associate items and express thoughts in novel ways, to make connections where others have yet to be made. Creativity is thinking in a slightly different way, reaching a new conclusion or finding a new way to reach that conclusion.

Albert Einstein was creative. So was John Nash.

In fact, I see high achievement as having a closer link to conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder than the typical association with the arts. However, true creativity has nothing to do with doing anything artistic. It is about making new connections and visualizations of things, and being able to express those in a way for other people to understand and interpret.

Creativity is visualizing riding a bicycle along a beam of light, and imagining what that beam of light would look like. It is revolutionizing game theory. It’s a powerful novel about a dystopian future that touches on some of the most powerful issues in the world today. Creativity is all of these things, and more. More than just the arts, more than the sciences.
Creativity is about uniqueness and newness. Everyone has the capacity for those.

Sources:

Creativity and Mental Illness – Canadian Journal of Psychiatry

Swedish Population Study – Science Direct

Mental Illness vs. The Arts – BBC News

Art and Personality – New York Times

We’ve all felt down on our luck sometimes. Maybe we didn’t do as well on a test as we would have liked, or we argued with one of our close friends, or we didn’t get that job we wanted. Maybe all we wanted to do at that moment was climb into bed and wish the world wasn’t there.

Yet those moments are fleeting sadness, a minor blip in the grand scheme of things. There’s no major brain chemistry changes occurring, unlike in medical depression (major depressive disorder). Despite years of study and investigation, the underlying cause of MDD is still puzzling to many researchers. Nearly all antidepressive medication is based on research done dozens of years ago. Furthermore, most of those drugs take weeks to months to take effect, if they ever take effect at all, making depression one of the most disabling conditions in modern society.

However, recent studies have shed some new light on the biological aspects of depression and chronic stress. For reasons still unknown, MDD is rooted in an overall reduction in brain connectivity, as well as atrophy of some key regions. Essentially, the brain becomes smaller, with fewer synapses and neurons. Somehow, the homeostatic balance that maintains synaptic plasticity becomes disrupted, leading to a loss of brain function and depression.

Nevertheless, there is hope on the horizon for those whose depression remains untreated. Studies have shown that ketamine, a sedative and general anesthetic drug, has a startlingly rapid effect on alleviating depression. Typically used to induce anesthesia, ketamine is a powerful drug that acts as an NMDA receptor antagonist by binding noncompetitively to the receptor and preventing the use of the channel. Note that ketamine is also commonly used as a rave drug, as it causes some hallucinogenic effects. It has also been used as a date rape drug through its more conventional anesthetic properties.

All this is nice, but how does ketamine actually affect depression?

The answer is complicated, but we can say that ketamine somehow sparks a massive burst of synaptogenesis, or a creation of new synapses, especially in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). This finding is a completely novel approach to depression, focusing on the number of synaptic connections rather than the activity of the synapses that are already there. The exact mechanism is unknown, but the prevailing hypothesis, brought forward by researcher Ronald Duman, states that ketamine sparks this explosion of synaptogenesis by increasing glutamate transmission in the PFC, likely by inhibiting GABAergic inhibitory interneurons. This release of extra glutamate is thought to cause a cascade of protein synthesis reactions that result in an increase the amount and strength of synapses throughout the brain, but especially in the cortical and limbic structures. Moreover, this protein synthesis occurs within hours of ketamine intake, leading to a much faster treatment of depressive symptoms.

In addition, ketamine increases the activity of cytoskeletal proteins responsible for the expansion and stabilization of dendritic spines while also decreasing the activity enzymes associated with the breakdown of dendritic spines. Both of these occur through that same NMDA-blocking pathway that causes an increase in glutamate release in the brain.

Despite its unconventional past as an anesthetic and rave drug, ketamine is proving its potential to be an instrumental part of depression treatment as we move forward. Its effects on synaptogenesis are profound, leading to a single dose of ketamine alleviating depression within hours. The effects can last for several weeks.

There is only one problem. Despite ketamine’s promise as the first revolutionary drug in the field of depression medication since the 1970s, it carries with it some severe side effects, including hallucinations, nausea, persistent dizziness, and headache. Long term side effects can be even worse, especially when the brain is overexposed to ketamine.

That is not to say that the potential of ketamine is being ignored. In fact, many companies are charging into the field, trying to find compounds that can mimic the effects of ketamine while minimizing the side effects. Hope is on the horizon for those with untreatable depression. And maybe, just maybe, a drug with a spotted past will be the one to do it.

Synaptic Dysfunction in Depression: Potential Therapeutic Targets – Science

Ketamine Relieves Depression by Restoring Brain Connections – NPR