Mood disorder in the personal correspondence of Robert Burns: testing a novel interdisciplinary approach , Mood disorder in the personal correspondence of Robert Burns: testing a novel interdisciplinary approach: supplementary information

摘要

Robert Burns has long been recognised as someone who experienced episodes of melancholia, but no detailed, systematic and objective assessment of his mental health has been undertaken. We tested a novel methodology, combining psychiatric and literary approaches, to assess the feasibility of using Burns’s extensive personal correspondence as a source of evidence for assessing the presence of symptoms of a clinically significant mood disorder. We con rmed the potential of this approach and identi ed putative evidence of episodes of depression and hypomania within the correspondence. While not conclusive of a formal diagnosis of bipolar disorder, this work highlights a need for further systematic examination of Burns’s mental health and how this may have in uenced his work.