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Intelligent People More At Risk of Mental Illness, Study Finds (independent.co.uk)
schwit1 shares a report from The Independent: The stereotype of a tortured genius may have a basis in reality after a new study found that people with higher IQs are more at risk of developing mental illness. A team of U.S. researchers surveyed 3,715 members of American Mensa with an IQ higher than 130. An "average IQ score" or "normal IQ score" can be defined as a score between 85 and 115. The team asked the Mensa members to report whether they had been diagnoses with mental illnesses, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They were also asked to report mood and anxiety disorders, or whether the suspected they suffered from any mental illnesses that had yet to be diagnosed, as well as physiological diseases, like food allergies and asthma. After comparing this with the statistical national average for each illness they found that those in the Mensa community had considerably higher rates of varying disorders. While 10 per cent of the general population were diagnosed with anxiety disorder, that rose to 20 percent among the Mensa community, according to the study which published in the Science Direct journal.
No wonder people keep saying I'm crazy.
"However, the study pointed out that a high IQ was not the cause of mental illness, but it could be correlated with the highly intelligent community."
Or a high IQ could be correlated with better jobs and better health benefits, therefore leading to more diagnoses of mental illness.
Or mental health professionals could have more difficulty identifying mental illnesses in those with lower IQ.
Or.
Or.
Where are the controls? I realize that relying on subject-reported data in studies is necessary in some cases, but I believe they could've done better than this.
This is easy, lots of people are too stupid to realise they have problems.
Doesn't mean they don't have problems. Smarter people are better at diagnosis.
I envy those people I know who are capable of insanity and irrationality.
So far my brain just won't break.
But alzheimers or dementia are probably in my late 70s.
It's a problem because the rational person sees a lot of the bad in the world and can't really alleviate their own suffering other than by taking mind altering substances or temporarily distracting activities.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Correlation is not causation. An obvious explanation is that intelligent people have higher incomes, and can afford to better medical care, which leads to more mental health diagnoses.
Maybe people with mental disorders are more likely to join Mensa.
It seems like a flawed study in a number of ways, but it is nonetheless a believable situation.
I know a few people, co-workers and friends, who I consider brilliant. To a person they are more bothered by the disparity between how the world could be if people made better choices, and how it actually is. It is difficult for them to see a society which does not value education and understanding, where a pop celeb is held in high esteem by millions and listened to when they spout pseudoscientific babble, while scientists with real expertise are ignored.
I think the smarter you are, the more you end up disappointed by the human animal. They hide it, but it shows.
I know, I know -- I read it. I'm sorry.
Their research was based on model that suggests intelligent people with "hyper brains" are more reactive to environmental stimulus and that “may predispose them to certain psychological disorders as well as physiological conditions involving elevated sensory and altered immune and inflammatory responses".
Their study seemed to confirm this, as it suggested that because of their increased awareness levels, those with higher IQs react more to their environment. This creates a hyper brain/hyper body scenario, where they display a hyperactive central nervous system.
So highly intelligent people focus more on the shit going on around them and melt down over it. The more oblivious percentiles brush it off (if they even noticed it at all) and move on with their lives. That seems about right.
phantomfive pointed out:
Measuring only people from MENSA is one hell of a confounding factor. They are a self-selected group by definition.
This. To start with.
This is about the laziest excuse for experimental design I've ever seen. Self-selected, self-reporting sample with no controls other than Mensa membership vs Mensa non-membership?
Feh.
Social "sciences" have a well-deserved reputation for straining at gnats and swallowing camels - and crap like this doesn't sure help their credibility ...
Check out my novel.
The sample populations here are terrible, but I can accept the overall proposition as plausible.
My theory would mostly center around the idea that higher intelligence is associated with a diminished ability to accept falsifiable or non-provable platitudes, optimism and superstitious thinking. This leads to a deficit of coping mechanisms for the difficulties of every day life and hardships, resulting increased stress, pessimism and negative thoughts and ideation. You might even oversimplify it as a lack of hope in some ways.
Less intelligent people may find superstitions (including but not just religious belief) easier to accept, especially if provided by authority figures. They're more likely to believe in optimistic future outcomes, including improbable ones, not out of gullibility but because they lack the understanding of why they are unlikely -- it's a "I can win the lottery" mindset. This provides a wealth of coping mechanisms for dealing with ordinary setbacks and problems, reducing stress and anxiety. Jesus won't _really_ set you free, but if you're dumb enough to believe it, he will actually set you free.
All this being said, it's probably just as easy to believe that people with an interest in joining an exclusive high IQ group are also people with a low sense of self esteem who are prone to depression. Belonging to a group that's not only exclusive but also exclusively for high intelligence people provides them with a sense of validation and superiority, but for many it's not enough and they wind up depressed and anxious anyway.
But I guess all of it could be true to some extent.
The stereotype of a tortured genius may have a basis in reality after a new study found that people with higher IQs are more at risk of developing mental illness. A team of U.S. researchers surveyed 3,715 members of American Mensa with an IQ higher than 130. An "average IQ score" or "normal IQ score" can be defined as a score between 85 and 115.
Another interpretation of the data is that people who join American Mensa have a higher probability of having a mental illness. There's even a very plausible mechanism for this, people with a mental illness often look for ways to treat that illness, joining a group of people they can potentially relate to (ie Mensa) is one way to deal with their illness.
I stole this Sig
You need to be in the top 2% for IQ scores to join Mensa. It means that about 6 million Americans are eligible to join Mensa, compare this to abound 60000 actual members.
It means that only 1% of Americans with high IQ are Mensa members, so I think it is safe to assume that there are other important criteria that make people join Mensa. So is it the IQ or is it something else that cause this correlation.
I don't know how they addressed this in the (paywalled) paper. Did they run tests to weed out external factors or did they leave that task to other researchers? For example, did they do their own IQ tests in addition to relying on Mensa members to get a good sample of people with high IQ?
So people smart enough to know what they might have, and smart enough to get tested for things, and smart enough to ask for help, report problems more often than the average dumb person who needs to be convinced to go to a doctor once in a while, wear a seatbelt in a car, get vaccinated for major illnesses, and not fall for Nigerian scams?
I think it's safe to say that smart people identify more problems than dumb people -- independent of how many problems either group has.
I also get my car repaired more often than the average car owner -- and my car's more reliable than the average car too. But I'm willing/able to repair non-essential parts, where the average car owner would just let it go, and drive with a cracked windshield, a squeaky bushing, a rusty dent, a less-than-perfect oxygen sensor, et cetera. There's a reason why routine emissions tests are now mandated.