Is the ADHD Brain More Creative?

[David Baxter PhD]

Is the ADHD Brain More Creative?
by Dr. Stephanie Sarkis
June 13, 2011

Is it possible that the impulsivity and quick-thinking that accompanies ADHD may also boost creativity? And what role does medication have in that creative process? Does stimulant medication hamper creativity, or boost it?

The ADHD brain may not be held back as much by constraints on thinking. In a study by Abraham et al. (2006), adolescents with ADHD, adolescents with conduct disorder, and a control group were each assessed with creativity measures. The ADHD group was found to have a higher rate of being able to overcome constraining examples (?thinking outside the box?), but had difficulty creating an invention from an imagery task.

In a study by White and Shaw (2006), people with ADHD were found to score higher than those without ADHD in a measure of divergent thinking (ie. coming up with creative solutions to a problem). However, people with ADHD did not score as well as those without ADHD on a measure of convergent thinking (ie. giving the ?correct? answer to a test question).

A later study by White and Shaw (2011) found that people with ADHD scored higher in original creativity and creative achievement than those without ADHD. It was also found that people with ADHD preferred generating ideas, while those without ADHD preferred clarifying problems and developing ideas.

Contrary to popular opinion, stimulant medication may not actually hamper creativity. In a double-blind placebo-controlled study, Farah et al. (2009) measured sixteen young adults on four measures of creativity. Two of the measures required divergent thought, while the other two required convergent thought . The study found that Adderall did improve convergent thought. No negative effects were found on convergent and divergent thought measures.

While more studies need to be done on ADHD and creativity, it does appear that there may be a correlation between ADHD and increased creativity.

References
Abraham, A., Windmann, S., Siefen, R., Daum, I., and G?nt?rk?n, O. (2006). Creative thinking in adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Child Neuropsychology 12(2): 111-123.

Farah, M.J., Haimm, C., Sankoorikal, G, and Chatterjee, A. (2009). When we enhance cognition with Adderall, do we sacrifice creativity? A preliminary study.Psychopharmacology 202(1): 541-547.

White, H.A., and Shaw, P. (2011). Creative style and achievement in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Personality and Individual Differences (50)5: 673-677.

White, H.A., and Shaw, P. (2006). Uninhibited imaginations: Creativity in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Personality and Individual Differences 40(6): 1121-1131.

 

[Franz Rudolf]

As being a professional Dr. in Psychology, AND an ADHD on a very high level, I can say: yes, ADHD patients have a higher creativity, a often better intelligence, but a bad instruction-book on how to use it all. If I or most of my patients want to use our intelligence and creativity, We have to make short term plans and options, meaning, I had to plan doing my examines in extreme short times, A-levels in all items 2,5 months aso. My studies always start excellent but without making them all in a very short time, they become extremely boring, heavy to focus on etc. Liike most of my patients, I write books (Driverslicense for women, The Fuengirola Teens aso, paint, invent things, but lose the interest, dont go on. We have all those skills, maybe more than others, but we lack the discipline to go on and finish them, many of them already are dismissed while thinking about them. I treat mostly ADHD kids and adults and can easily structure them but very often is it their own intelligence that stops them from going on without constantly being motivated. Doing twenty tasks - or maybe better said, starting twenty tasks - is rather easy. Following up on maybe one of them is tough... The damn Dopamine does not exactly support our efforts.<br>Franz Rudolf, 

 

[Ronbell]

My creativity fluctuates with the weather. I find more often than not I'm coming up with unusual solutions to problems, but they aren't always the most practical. Much like the findings in this study.

 

[Franz Rudolf]

I do agree with the claim. The brain is much more creative though the ADHD patient has immense difficulties to go through with all the different ideas and solutions it thinks of. Since the patient often is hypersensitive and very creative in general, the solutions found are often very creative too - and many times difficult to follow through.