Cognitive Ability in Early Adulthood and Risk of 5 Specific Psychiatric Disorders in Middle Age

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Abstract
There is increasing evidence that children and adolescents with lower scores on standard tests of intelligence may be more vulnerable to psychopathology later in life. Lower cognitive ability in childhood or adolescence has been associated with an increased risk of developing schizophrenia,1-4 severe depression or other nonaffective psychoses,3 posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD),5,6 generalized anxiety disorder (GAD),7 and alcohol or other drug abuse.8 Although these findings suggest that cognitive ability may be a risk factor for many forms of psychiatric disorder, much of the evidence is based on individuals whose disorders were severe enough to require admission to a hospital1-4,8,9 or treatment by secondary care mental health services.10 A few recent longitudinal studies of the relation between cognitive ability and subsequent psychiatric disorder have used structured diagnostic interviews to assess psychopathology across a wider spectrum of severity. Although these studies have produced consistent findings linking cognitive ability with the risk of PTSD,5,6 results on the relation between cognitive ability and anxiety disorders were inconsistent,7,11 and the only study to examine its link with depression found no association.11