Creativity's Bum Rap

Serious depression strikes writers, artists and musicians up to 10 times as often as the general population, a tendency often attributed to the creative spark.

But according to a study, it's the artist's propensity for rumination that often leads to the blues, not creativity itself. In a study of young adults, psychologist Paul Verhaeghen of Syracuse University in New York found no direct relationship between creativity and depression. The tendency for self-reflection, however, seems to breed both depression and creative behavior. The study appeared in Emotion.