Drugs and medications: are we reducing conception of creative art?

Drugs and medications: are we reducing conception of creative art?

Abraham Lincoln, Beethoven, Michelangelo, Charles Dickens – are all creative people with mental illnesses. They all had a different mental illness. May be that is what set them apart and their minds to produce art works that have been appreciated worldwide since its inception. All these great minds have been part of times in history when psychiatric medicines were not as well established as it is today. Some of them remained untreated. People like Sylvia Plath and Vincent Van Gogh committed suicide when they found themselves submerged in the abyss of mental disorder. Now, there are treatments for each of the mental disorders. But there have been evidences for these treatments leading to perturbed cognitive abilities and consequently reduced creativity and other cognitive abilities (Gelenberg, 1995)

In this blog post, I aim to explore whether by treating certain types of mental illnesses are we loosing greater contributions in the field of art and sciences. The philosophy of dualism was written by Descarte was written when he shut himself away from society and slepy in an oven (DeMicele, 2017) . If he was treated then, with the therapies and drugs of today, and integrated into the society, would we have got such seminal pieces that answer some important questions about human life?

One of the commonly used drugs for preventing maniac episodes in patients with bipolar disorder is Lithium Carbonate.  A review by Wingo et al. (2009) has found that administering lithium carbonate on healthy and non-healthy partners with mental disorders has led to a deficit in their mental abilities. Statistically significant reduction of effectiveness was found in verbal learning, memory and creativity. When people with mental disorders were separately considered, it was found that there was a significant reduction in the efficacy of their verbal and learning memory, and creativity. This shows how lithium carbonate can reduce maniac episodes and tendencies to commit suicide but how it also perturbs cognitive abilities and hence creativity.

But, interestingly, there have been evidences supporting the contrary. A study by Judd et la. (1977) showed that administering lithium carbonate on normal individuals only led to no significant difference in semantic creativity or aesthetic perception. But, there were deficits noticed on most of the performance tasks the participants were asked to perform. This raises a question which is still left unanswered: is deficit in creativity only seen as a result in patients with mental disorders? Does the administration of drugs on normal people not lead to any alteration of their brain structures that lead to a significant difference pre and post administration of the drug?

A real life story that answers the question that was posed above is from the life of one of the renowned artists: Vincent Van Gogh. Evidence suggest that he may have suffered from manic depression. A notable feature of his famous painting Starry nights is the yellow corona that was seen around every star. This yellow hue was seen in other paintings as well. One theory that supports the emergence of the usage of this particular colour is the fact that his physician medicated him with something called the digital purpurea. This particular medicine was seen in one of the paintings of his physician. He was portrayed as holding this plant. People on large and repeated doses of this drug have reported that they see the world in yellow green tint. They specifically see yellow spots surrounded by coronas. Although this is not directly related to creativity, this drug is what evidently conceived in Van gogh the idea of giving his stars a yellow corona (Wolf, 2001).

All these evidences raise a paradoxical question. By treating mental illnesses in creative and talented people we are reducing the episodes of maniac episodes, depressive symptoms and suicidal attempts, but what about the great pieces of art that their minds would have to offer this world. Sometimes, thinking differently is what produces seminal and unconventional works. These ideas that emerge from abnormal minds evoke trains of thought in normal minds. They may be sometimes useful for the society. This leads us to another question of whether we can leave such people untreated and whether it is ethical to do this. Its trade off either way. But the loss is significant in each case.

References

Gelenberg, A. J., Hirschfeld, R. M., Jefferson, J. W., Potter, W. Z., & Thase, M. E. (1995). Managing lithium therapy. Patient Care, 29(19), 71-86.

Judd, L. L., Hubbard, B., Janowsky, D. S., Huey, L. Y., & Takahashi, K. I. (1977). The effect of lithium carbonate on the cognitive functions of normal subjects. Archives of General Psychiatry, 34(3), 355-357.

Wingo, A. P., Wingo, T. S., Harvey, P. D., & Baldessarini, R. J. (2009). Effects of lithium on cognitive performance: a meta-analysis. In Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE): Quality-assessed Reviews [Internet]. Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (UK).

Wolf P. (2001). Creativity and chronic disease. Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). The Western journal of medicine, 175(5), 348.