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Various mental health issues like bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, autism, depression and anorexia, were shown to be most prevalent among artists and designers.
The researchers said a person’s profession cannot be predicted by genetic indicators.
A novel study has shown fascinating links between employment choices and genetic predispositions to mental health conditions. After analysing data from more than 400,000 workers in the US and the UK, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found that psychological characteristics including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism can subtly affect career pathways.
Although the researchers noted that these characteristics might influence professional preferences, they warned that the effect was small, making up only 0.4 per cent of the variables affecting career choices. Meanwhile, career outcomes were significantly more influenced by age, sex and contextual factors, as per the New York Post.
The study, which looked at 20 professional domains and found distinct trends, was published in Nature Human Behaviour. Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, autism, depression and anorexia were among the mental health issues artists and designers were most susceptible to, reports add.
The characteristics linked to autism were most prevalent among STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) professionals and the largest correlation among community and social workers was for schizophrenia. The strongest association with anorexia nervosa was found in educators and teachers.
On the other hand, occupations found to be least linked to mental health predispositions included design and engineering, healthcare, agriculture, business and finance, office administration, management and sales, indicating higher occupational stability.
One important finding of the study was jobs associated with ADHD frequently needed lower levels of formal education.
The study’s lead author, Georgios Voloudakis, said in an interview with Medical Xpress, “This implies that systemic biases in education can disproportionately affect individuals with a higher genetic predisposition for ADHD, even if they never receive an actual diagnosis,” he added.
The goal of the study was to dispel the stigma associated with neuropsychiatric illnesses, which are prevalent and strongly inherited. They looked at the possible advantages of these characteristics as well as their drawbacks. The researchers highlighted that a person’s career cannot be predicted solely by genetic markers, even though the results were statistically significant.
