We’re delighted to announce that funding has been secured from the University Grants Committee (UGC) in Hong Kong for a new iteration of CREST.BD’s Creativity and Decision-Making study spearheaded by Network Member Dr. Samson Tse in Hong Kong, along with co-applicants Sheri Johnson, Luke Clark, and Erin Michalak.

The study will be the first within a Chinese population to explore the relationship between bipolar disorder and creativity. It will replicate some of the methods used in our foundational study (conducted in Vancouver and Berkeley) but also advance the scope of the research with new methods. For example, the project will include a qualitative component, using a Photovoice in which participants take photographs as a of creative reflection and data capture.

Studies like Dr. Tse’s, and CREST.BD’s previous work on creativity, are vitally important to expanding current understandings of bipolar disorder. Taking a strengths-based approach in bipolar disorder represents one potential avenue for stigma reduction, and lays the groundwork for clinical interventions that are better tailored to the unique traits of people with bipolar disorder.

Drs. Samson Tse and Sheri Johnson at the University of California, Berkeley (April 2019)

That’s all for now, but we’ll follow up soon with with a blog post that goes into more detail about the project and its history!

Dr. Samson Tse has also published a blog with us on Chinese Culture and Bipolar Disorder.

To learn more about the Vancouver and Berkeley branches of the project, please check out our previous project blog posts:

Explore vs. Exploit: Option Exploration in People with Bipolar Disorder

The Link Between Bipolar Disorder and Creativity – Introducing a new CREST.BD study