Those who have a psychiatric diagnosis tend to bind to partners with the same condition. Scholars: “Perhaps these people understand each other better thanks to shared suffering”

“Whoever looks like it takes,” says the proverb. And science seems to confirm it, even when it comes to mental health. People with a psychiatric diagnosis tend to bind and marry with partners who present the same conditionas a large international study has shown.

Research, Published in the magazine Nature Human Behaviour, has analyzed The data of almost 15 million people coming from three very different countries (Taiwan, Denmark and Sweden) reaching an surprisingly uniform conclusion: The phenomenon repeats itself beyond cultural, geographical and even generational differences.

The study

Scholars examined couples in which one or both partners presented one of these diagnoses: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, adhd, autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder (doc), disorders from the use of substances and anorexia nervosa. The tendency to choose “similar” partners was found in almost all cases, with some specificities: for example, in Taiwan couples showed a greater probability of sharing an obsessive-compulsive disorder than Nordic couples.

The authors have divided the data into birth bands, from the 1930s to the nineties. The result? With the passing of generations, the probability that both partners had the same diagnosis has slightly increasedin particular for the disorders related to the abuse of substances.

As Chun Chieh Fan explained, co-author of the study and researcher in genetics of populations to Graduate Institute for Brain Research, “The most important data is that this scheme repeats itself in different countries, in different cultures and, above all, in the different generations”. Nor the changes in the psychiatry of the last fifty years, nor the evolution of health systems have changed this trend.

Another significant figure concerns the children: When both parents share the same disorder, the probability that children also develop it doubles. This strengthens the idea that genetic and environmental factors are both at stake in the development of psychiatric disorders.

The reasons

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Why does it happen that partners are chosen with the same diagnosis? The causes remain in part a mystery. The study is of an observational type and cannot provide definitive answers. However, scientists speculate several mechanisms: the mutual understanding deriving from similar experiences of sufferingthe attraction towards those who resemble us, or the influence of a shared environment (couples become more similar in time: a phenomenon known as convergence). It should not even be excludedeffect of social stigma: Having a psychiatric diagnosis could narrow the possibilities of choosing the partner.

“Maybe these people they understand better thanks to shared sufferingand for this they attract themselves, “said Fan in an interview a Nature: Love, even when crossed by the disease, can arise from a common ground of empathy and closeness.