Brighter children at higher bipolar risk

Children who do better at school are more likely to develop bipolar disorder later in life. Researchers from King's College London and the Karolinska Institute in Gothenburg looked at the exam results of more than 700,000 Swedish teenagers and compared them to their later medical history. They found that those children with the highest performance were nearly four times as likely to develop bipolar disorder as those with average grades. Children with the poorest grades were twice as likely to develop bipolar disorder in adulthood as those with average grades. The link between high grades and bipolar disorder was particularly strong for creative subjects such as Swedish or music. People who suffer from bipolar disorder often experience extra energy, creativity and ability to connect ideas during the manic phase of their illness although mania can lead to inappropriate, dangerous or excessive behaviour. It is also worth remembering that on the whole people who do well at school tend to have better mental health than other people.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7137591/Straight-A-schoolchildren-at-higher-risk-of-bipolar-disorder-research-claims.html