Ruth Karpinski et al.’s “High Intelligence: A Risk Factor for Psychological and Physiological Overexcitabilities” evaluates the literature and mechanisms that are possibly rooted in the relationship between high intelligence and several psychological disorders–particularly depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and ADHD. The researchers compared data gathered from nearly four-thousand individuals who scored in the top 2% of intelligence tests to those from national surveys in order to analyze the pervasiveness of various disorders in those characterized by elevated intelligence (as compared to the average population). Essentially, the results illustrated that highly intelligent people are 20% more likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, 80% more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, and 83% more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety. The article emphasizes that highly intelligent individuals generally have tendencies for “intellectual overexcitabilities” and hyper-reactivity of the central nervous system, which may lend heightened cognizance to those with high IQ–tending to their creative and artistic capacities. One aspect of highly intelligent individuals is that they are recognized for having a “broader and deeper capacity to comprehend their surroundings” (Karpinski et al.). However, this hyper-reactivity can also lead to deepening depressive states and compromised mental health.
Polish psychiatrist and psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski first coined the term “overexcitability”, the English translation of the Polish word “nadpobudliwosc”, meaning “superstimulatability”. He discovered that hyper-reactions and intensities occur with greater prevalence and of greater strength in the intellectually gifted compared to those with a normal or lower intelligence quotient (IQ). According to Dabrowski’s observations, gifted individuals have a tendency to show signs of nervousness, a condition which was observed to be relatively absent in the intellectually delayed. These types of individuals