This is not a Thread seeking Medical Advice.
This is simply a question, arising out of curiosity based on accounts I have heard, seeking an answer based on the facts.
Is the part of the brain responsible for artistic creativity impeded, retarded, dulled, or in any other way is the function adversely affected by the effects of anti-depressant drugs?
Again, just looking for the facts, such as:
What is the part of the brain responsible for creativity?
What brain function is targeted by antidepressant drugs?
What non-targeted functions end up being affected incidentally?
Does the targeted area have a relationship with the center for creativity, be that relationship based on direct interaction, proximity, or simple happenstance?
Anticipating the question “Which antidepressant drug are you asking about? Different drugs work in different ways.”
If there are different answers, I’d like to hear as many answers as Dopers can provide- please note for which particular drug your answer is relevant.
There is no real life person who’s choices are going to be affected by the answers in this Thread. The premise that antidepressant drugs adversely affect creativity is simply something I have heard as a “fact” that “everybody knows” but “they” don’t want you to know. Exactly the kind of thing we look to the SDMB to straighten out in the battle against ignorance.
I don’t know about antidepressants, but I’ve heard some musicians take Toprol (beta blocker) because it helps them be more creative and play better. Weird, but I’ve read that in one of those books that describe medications, a desk reference type book.
I have mainly heard that for bipolar people (which are completely different from people with regular depression). Drugs used to treat bipolar disorder have a goal to stop the mania. Mania can be associated with several different types of creativity including writing and artistic inspiration. Bipolar people that value the manic state for this reason are often reluctant to take drugs that stop the mania and often cease using them on their own. I went to graduate school in behavioral neuroscience but I also have 1st hand experience with this. Most people with major depression find it hard to get anything at all done.
From bitter experience I can say that if you are so depressed that you need an antidepressant, you are not very creative anymore. Antidepressants against chronic endogenous depression target the serotonin system, which is the “reward” system of the brain, e.g. by blocking the breakdown of serotonin or the re-uptake of the neurotransmitter, thus enhancing the endogenous serotonin signal.
The story is different for bipolar disorder: here, episodes of depression alternate with phases of excessive elation, and a patient may well feel more creative during a manic phase than he does
when under the influence of medication.
As far as parts of the brain goes, some popular targets are:
serotonin transporter (prozac, zoloft)
noradrenaline transporter (duloxetine)
dopamine transporter (wellbutrin)
monoamineoxidase inhibitors (old school stuff like linezolid)
GABA receptor (benzodiazepines like valium)
everything (some anti-psychotics like clozapine)
Obviously, all of this stuff is absolutely fundamental to brain chemistry and metabolism, so I’m not sure how it helps your question. The huge challenge in designing pyschoactive drugs is illustrated by the fact that sometimes the dirtiest ones that hit the most receptors are the most effective. It seems that we’re a long way from understanding small molecule intervention into the brain.
Well, it would have to depend what you mean by creativity. Clearly many drugs are used to limit emotional range, and you might consider that this would inhibit creativity. Like Shagnasty I’ve seen bipolars who were reluctant to take their medication, because it dampened their ‘flow’ - on the other hand, you might argue that it slowed them down enough to focus their efforts.
On the other hand, I’ve seen some folks become much more productive when using anti-depressants, and productivity is also an aspect of creativity.
Musicians -and others- use beta-blockers to combat stage-fright (tremor), not to enhance ‘creativity’. I would say that if anything, beta-blockers flatten emotional range or ‘presence’.
Ah, interesting to see the specific references to bipolar disorder since I mostly can’t give specific examples of hearing about drugs inhibiting creativity, just that I heard it said from time to time. The only very specific example I can give of having heard it is from the T.V. show ER. It was the reason given by Sally Fields’ character for not wanting to take her drugs- as I remember, her character had bipolar disorder.
I was on a combination of drugs (Effexor, Lamictal, Seroquel) for what was likely erroneously diagnosed bipolar disorder. And I write. Maybe not well, and certainly not professionally, but I do. The theraputic effects of the drugs themselves didn’t kill my creativity–the aphasia I got as a side effect, however, most certainly did.
As a creative person with long term depressive tendencies and experience with several meds, I feel my problem with antidepressants is not so much creativity as productivity. That urgency to do and achieve, which used to scatter and frazzle me to the point of near breakdown, is dampened now. Riding the creative bronco is no longer so essential.
I’m happier, but deader and more passive. I still have ideas, but I seldom go very far with them. In a way, I have negative associations with the creative process - as if I associate it with being miserable.
From personal observation of one other person, and a bunch of reading: The manic phase of bipolar can be characterized not only by increased energy, but by perfectionism, increased irritability and shortness of temper. The rest of the world seems to be going too slowly, and everyone else appears incompetent. This is not good, as eventually the pendulum will swing and the person now has no energy, can’t even get out of bed, but is less likely to be given any special consideration from the folks he or she has been criticizing during the manic phase. The manic phase also makes promises that can’t be kept.
What I’m not seeing so far is any data from controlled studies on how medication for mood disorders might affect creativity - just individual accounts and speculation.
Here’s one study that looked at Paxil and productivity (not specifically in a “creative” context). A search of PubMed also turns up an article (or series of articles) in the Australia New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry (1999) regarding mania and creativity, though it looks like individual accounts and not any kind of systematic study.
My personal take is that there is probably no disease more suppressive of creative instincts than major depression, and anything that can relieve it is likely to improve creativity.
As for mania, I wonder what the quality of works created under its spell really is, as opposed to how good the creators feel it is. As a kind of parallel, how many great works of music and literature have been written by speed freaks/meth addicts?
I’ve noticed that since my prescription ran out I have been more creative.
Unfortunately, this also means that I am still adjusting. Fortunately - it feels great to have this part of me back! My bff also struggles with creativity vs meds and she often opts out of taking the meds.
Since I have stopped (though it’s been taking time):
I have felt the desire to write again - blogs and poetry are my outlets.
I’ve also started creating some adult-oriented amusing greeting cards described in this thread
I didnt notice much of a decrease when I first went on meds, as a matter of fact, I seemed to be a little more organized in my thoughts and completed things without being sidetracked as much as I usually am (I had multi-tasking down to a T on my good days). When my prescript was changed to generic - it all went away (or was extremely short lived).
Luckily, I am more of a manic than depressive person when I am not under a huge amount of stress. I also feel as though I have a good support circle to keep me in line.
All I can say is - It feels good to have this part of me back!
I think a lot of the answer depends on what kind of “creativity” you’re talking about.
If you want to research and write a historical novel that takes place in 19th century Bavaria with realistic characters doing realistic things, and meet a publisher’s deadline – well, trying to do that while you’re depressed is damn near impossible.
If you’re talking about the explosive kind of creativity that bursts out and produces (for example) Alan Ginsberg’s “Howl” – wild emotional swings can be your friend.
I hinted above that I am bipolar and indeed I am. Most of my experiences were with hypomania which is a lesser degree of mania and isn’t completely bad. During hypomania, I would do things like get up at 5 am to go for a 6 mile run, be in a good mood all day, work very quickly, pop jokes, and become more social. These episodes usually lasted about 3 months at a time.
However, I had one episode of real mania that lasted 4 months and nearly cost me everything. To skip most of the details, I just got in my car one day and went on an 11,000 mile road trip by myself with no plan whatsoever and operating strictly by impulse all of the time (e.g. if I woke up at 3 am in Louisiana and decided I needed to be in Florida 6 hours later for no reason in particular, that is what I made happen.)
More relevant to the OP, mania does instill some very strange creative powers that I am sure weren’t delusion. My brain would create things that I could never do normally. I know nothing about music but I would just hear these songs in my head that did not exist. We aren’t talking about simple tunes. They had complicated lyrics, instruments, and other effects. Some of them sounded something like a Pink Floyd song as an example but they were 100% original. The problem was that if I tried to write any of it down, they would stop. This went on for weeks and I was on no mood altering substance. The same was true for books and poems. They would just appear in a fully formed state and they seemed very good.
The one thing that was extremely strange and will be hard for anyone to relate to is that I could think of more than one thing at the same time. I don’t mean juggling attention or switching back and forth between things. I mean literally have two different streams of thought going at exactly the same time.
I am successfully treated (hopefully for good) now but I can see where some of these claims come from. I have been in studies with other bipolar people who were writers and artists and they considered some of the manic features essential for their craft.
I am thrilled that you said that. I complained for years that the world seemed to be going too slowly literally as a minute by minute thing. For a long time, no one recognized that as a symptom of bipolar disorder and didn’t give it much credence at all. However, that is exactly what it felt like. Other people did everything too slowly in my mind from walking to putting unnecessary pauses in sentences while I had to wait for them to catch up. It was infuriating on a day to day basis and I didn’t know what was causing it at the time.
The symptoms of depression include confusion, lack of concentration, loss of interest, and loss of energy. Over all hangs a general sense of hopelessness. Not much creativity arises in such a state. Any medication which relieves these symptoms would probably increase the creativity of even a zombie.
I don’t know much about how depression affects the brain, but I know that it affects the part of the brain which also affects judgment.
Prozac saved my life 18 years ago. I continue to take it in generic form along with cymbalta. Antidepressants that I had tried earlier in my life did not seem to make much difference.