Couples share psychiatric disorders across nations and generations

Study finds couples share psychiatric disorders across nations and generations.

Why it matters

  • Spousal correlations impact prevalence and genetic studies of psychiatric disorders.

By the numbers

  • Five million spousal pairs in Taiwan.
  • Compared with Denmark (571,534 pairs) and Sweden (707,263 pairs).
  • Generational changes studied in Taiwan for people born after the 1930s.

The big picture

  • Consistent correlations across nations and generations.
  • Important for population dynamics of psychiatric disorders.

What they're saying

  • Comments question causation: reinforcement vs. attraction.
  • Observations on empathy among sufferers.

Caveats

  • Limited data availability.

What’s next

  • Further research on causation and cultural differences.