Study Reveals Spouses Often Share Psychiatric Disorders

fast Summary

• A study of 14.8 million people across Taiwan, Denmark, and Sweden reveals that spouses are more likely to share the same psychiatric diagnoses than to pair with a partner who does not have such conditions.
• Nine psychiatric disorders were analyzed: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), autism, OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), substance-use disorders, and anorexia nervosa.
• The trend holds consistently across cultures and generations over an extended timeframe from the 1930s to the 1990s.
• Variations were noted; for instance in Taiwan couples shared OCD diagnoses at higher rates compared to Nordic countries.
• Children born to couples with shared psychiatric conditions face double the risk of developing these disorders themselves compared to children with one affected parent.
• Experts theorize this trend may arise due to shared understanding among individuals with similar suffering or societal stigma narrowing marital choices but further research is needed on genetic risks for future counselling use cases in patients

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