ADHD appears to boost creativity—a benefit that emerges when a wandering mind is channeled appropriately, according to two new studies.
People with more symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder score higher on creative tests, researchers reported Saturday at a meeting of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) in Amsterdam.
This enhanced creativity likely stems from their tendency to let their minds wander—redirecting attention away from the task at hand toward internally generated thoughts, researchers explained.
Lead researcher Han Fang, a doctoral student with Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, stated: “We found that people with more ADHD traits such as lack of attention, hyperactivity or impulsivity, score higher on creative achievements in both studies.”
Fang added in a news release: “Additionally, we found that mind wandering, particularly deliberate mind wandering, where people allow their ‘thoughts to wander on purpose,’ was associated with greater creativity in people with ADHD. This suggests that mind wandering may be an underlying factor connecting ADHD and creativity.”
A Potential Upside to ADHD
The research highlights one potentially positive aspect of what is typically considered a disruptive behavioral disorder, experts noted.
Dr. K.P. Lesch, a professor of molecular psychiatry at the University of Wurzburg in Germany who wasn’t involved in the study, stated in a news release: “Mind wandering is one of the critical resources on which the remarkable creativity of high-functioning ADHD individuals is based.”
Lesch continued: “This makes them such an incredibly valuable asset for our society and the future of our planet.”
Study Methodology
Researchers compared two groups of ADHD patients with individuals without the disorder, including 347 participants in Europe and 403 in the U.K.
The team evaluated participants’ ADHD traits along with their functional impairments, mind wandering tendencies, divergent thinking, and creativity.
While everyone experiences some degree of mind wandering, it occurs more frequently in people with ADHD, Fang noted.
Fang explained: “Previous researchers have been able to distinguish two different types of mind wandering. It can be a loss of concentration, where your mind may drift from subject to subject. This is ‘spontaneous mind-wandering.’ Another type is ‘deliberate mind wandering,’ where people give themselves the freedom to drift off-subject, where they allow their thoughts to take a different course.”
Key Findings
Results demonstrated that both inattentiveness and hyperactivity-impulsivity among ADHD patients were associated with creativity and mind wandering.
Specifically, deliberate mind wandering correlated with greater inventiveness and imagination, researchers discovered.
Conversely, spontaneous mind wandering tended to contribute to the functional impairments typically observed among people with ADHD, researchers said.
Practical Applications
Fang suggested: “This may have practical implications, for both psychoeducation and treatment. For psychoeducation, specially designed programs or courses that teach individuals how to utilize their spontaneous ideas, for example turning them into creative outputs, could help individuals with ADHD traits harness the benefits of mind wandering.”
She continued: “For treatment, ADHD-tailored mindfulness-based interventions that seek to decrease spontaneous mind wandering or transform it into more deliberate forms may reduce functional impairments and enhance treatment outcomes.”
Fang noted this represents the first investigation of this connection, so additional research will be needed to confirm the findings.
Findings reported at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.