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Are there special circumstances that affect the love relationships of people with mental disorders? Swedish researchers offer their answer to this question.
How do we choose partners? To a large extent – by the similarity of habits, tastes and views. However, it is possible that this list will have to be supplemented by the similarity of symptoms. At least when it comes to mental disorders. This conclusion is prompted by an extremely large-scale study undertaken by specialists from the Swedish Karolinska Institute.
At the disposal of scientists was a database that included information about 700 thousand inhabitants of Sweden, who in the period from 1973 to 2009 were diagnosed with at least one of the 11 most common mental disorders.1. Studying it, the researchers drew attention to an extremely characteristic fact: the spouses of people who suffered from one or another mental disorder were 2-3 times more likely to be themselves prone to disorders. At the same time, those who had a psychiatric diagnosis, as a rule, chose partners with the same diagnosis as their life partners.
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Scientists tried to check whether the same pattern applies to non-psychiatric disorders, but they could not find any significant correlation here. In other words, people suffering from, for example, diabetes or stomach ulcers, forming families, did not necessarily prefer the same as themselves, diabetics and ulcers. But with regard to mental disorders, the pattern clearly takes place. In any case, this applies to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia.
“Summarizing our work, we can say that patients with psychiatric disorders tend to form pairs with people who are also prone to such disorders,” commented lead author of the study, psychologist Ashley Nordsletten (Ashley Nordsletten). “The connection we found is too serious and obvious to be considered a mere coincidence.”
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Researchers still find it difficult to name the specific mechanisms behind this strange pattern. However, it is possible that even now their work will help answer very important questions. Geneticists have long been concerned with the extraordinary “survivability” of such a severe disorder as schizophrenia. Since this disease leads to a decrease in life expectancy, and also reduces reproductive functions, it would be logical to expect that the percentage of those suffering from it should steadily decrease from generation to generation. However, according to statistics, this does not happen. And perhaps the reason lies precisely in the fact that people suffering from schizophrenia have a tendency to choose the same partners. Thereby ensuring the reproduction of the disorder in the next generation.
1 A. Nordsletten et al. Patterns of Nonrandom Mating Within and Across 11 Major Psychiatric Disorders. Online publication on the JAMA Psychiatry website from 24.02.2016.