Presidents & Their Medical Conditions

Of the thirty-seven U.S. presidents from George Washington to Richard Nixon, almost half may have suffered from a mental illness, according to a Duke University study. Two of the psychiatrists who authored the study reviewed biographical material on each president and assessed the likelihood that each chief executive suffered from various psychological disorders. While acknowledging the “limitations” of this method, they report that eighteen presidents exhibited tendencies suggestive of mental illness, with depression (in 24 percent of cases) being the most common, followed by anxiety (8 percent), bipolar disorder (8 percent), and alcoholism (also 8 percent). In ten cases, the disorder manifested itself during the president’s term in office, and in most of these instances, the authors argue, it “probably impaired job performance.” Franklin Pierce, for instance, lost his son in a railway accident immediately before his inauguration, and seems to have sunk into a depression so deep that associates commented that “he was not the person who had victoriously campaigned for office.” And the political “drift” associated with William Howard Taft’s term may be attributed to “the fact that he coped with the stress of the Presidency by overeating to the point of massive obesity and obstructive sleep apnea.” ...

—“Mental Illness in U.S. Presidents Between 1776 and 1974,” J. R. T. Davidson, K. M. Connor, and M. Swartz, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease