Yahoo News Having a high IQ ‘makes you more prone to mental illness’, researchers find
It turns out that the lazy old stereotype of the tortured genius – think Sherlock Holmes – actually has a grain of truth to it.
A study of Mensa members with high IQs – over 130 – found that ‘“those with high intelligence are at significantly greater risk for the examined psychological disorders.’’
The study examined 3,715 members of American Mensa and found that around 20% had an anxiety disorder – double the figure for the population at large.
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The researchers believe that the heightened perceptions of intelligent people, ‘may predispose them to certain psychological disorders..’
The researchers, led by Ruth Karpinski of Pfizer College, say that further study is needed to work out exactly why intelligent people may be more prone to such disorders.
The researchers write, ‘Intelligence research most often focuses on the flashes of lightning seen in this rare population, however in order to serve this group of individuals fully we must not neglect to acknowledge the rumbles of thunder that follow in the wake of their brilliance.’
