Spouses Can Infect Each Other With Mental Health Issues, According To Research
It turns out that mental health issues aren't just passed from one generation to the next.
Raka Miftah from Pexels | Canva It’s pretty normal for spouses to have personality traits and beliefs in common. After all, you’re more likely to be attracted to and want to be around somebody you can relate to. But research now shows that these are far from the only characteristics spouses share. A new study concluded that spouses may actually pass mental health issues back and forth to each other.
Mental health issues are, of course, not contagious in the traditional sense. But research suggested that spouses can sort of infect each other with them. A team of 19 researchers from across the globe discovered this “spousal correlation” across nine different mental health conditions. If one spouse developed the condition, the other was more likely to follow.
Developing a mental health condition after your spouse is diagnosed is no coincidence.
The international researchers published their findings in the journal Nature Human Behavior. David Nield reported on the study for Science Alert. He noted that this kind of “spousal correlation” is not unusual among things like religious and political beliefs. Researchers now believe that this correlation extends to things we don’t really have control over, though.
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Researchers studied five million pairs of Taiwanese spouses and examined their mental health characteristics. They were then compared to pairs from the Danish and Swedish national registries. The researchers discovered that the couples had a lot in common, including their mental health. “We found that a majority of psychiatric disorders have consistent spousal correlations across nations and over generations, indicating their importance in the population dynamics of psychiatric disorders,” they explained
Nield identified the mental health issues that researchers found were subject to spousal correlation as ADHD, anorexia nervosa, anxiety, autism, bipolar disorder, depression, OCD, schizophrenia, and substance abuse.
Apparently, there are three reasons for the spousal correlation of mental health issues.
It’s fascinating to know that there is this connection between spouses for these nine conditions in particular, but it does cause one to wonder why such a correlation exists. Nield said it happens because we tend to pick partners who are similar to ourselves. The whole “opposites attract” thing may not be as likely as some people think. There are also certain factors that create limitations when picking a partner, like socioeconomic status.
The third reason is perhaps the easiest to predict. It’s the fact that you’re bound to become more similar to someone if you live in the same environment with them. Researchers were unable to determine which of the three reasons was the most important or influential factor, as they all played a part.
Interestingly, these conclusions could turn what we know about human coupling on its head. It has long been believed to be random, but this causes one to wonder if that is really true. Additionally, studies like this one could help scientists determine why these conditions take root and what treatment would be best for them.
Previous research has examined whether or not mental health issues can be 'inherited' by posterity, but never really touched on spousal correlation.
This group of researchers did find that children who had parents who each had a certain mental health condition were more likely to have it themselves. This isn’t the first research to present this idea. Dr. Jimmy N. Avari, an Attending Physician at New York-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center, confirmed this.
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“Genes are clearly an important part of many psychiatric illnesses,” he said. “We know they are not everything, but they are significant across the board.” As an example, Avari noted that fraternal twins are more likely to both be diagnosed with major depressive disorder. The risk is even higher for identical twins.
Still, the idea that spouses can somehow pass mental health issues to each other is a new one, and it really has no basis in other research. This group of researchers might just have discovered something groundbreaking.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
