Superior academic performance linked to bipolar

People who achieve excellent grades at school are nearly four times more likely to develop bipolar disorder than those who produce average results, a study finds. However, those who have high grades are less likely to develop schizophrenia, whereas students who achieve low grades are at increased risk for both disorders, according to the Swedish study of over 900,000 students. “These findings support the hypothesis that exceptional intellectual ability is associated with bipolar disorder,” the study authors said. Those who had excellent grade-point average scores at age 15-16 were 3.8 times more likely to develop bipolar by age 31, whereas students with the lowest scores were around twice as likely when compared to those with average scores. The association for bipolar was stronger in males, and all associations remained after adjusting for potential confounders including socioeconomic group and parental education. The researchers said the association may be explained by differing cognitive styles or a predisposition to hypomanic mental state. “Creative output of individuals with bipolar disorder frequently coincides with periods of hypomania and the converse of this mechanism may also explain the association between poor school performance and bipolar disorder,” they said. Writing in the British Journal Psychiatry, they noted that the contrasting pattern of school results for schizophrenia and bipolar are “very striking” and could be explained by genetic factors that are common among both disorders. “Some individuals with bipolar may have subtle neurodevelopmental abnormalities similar to those in schizophrenia,” they said. “By contrast, those with bipolar who have excellent school performance may have a different aetiology which is linked to high IQ or creativity, and not associated with neurodevelopmental deviance.” B J Psych 201;196, 109-115....