ABSTRACT

Xu et al. present a study of practically the whole Swedish-born population over the age of 25, in which they report an elevated risk in same-sex (compared to opposite-sex) married individuals of depression, substance abuse, and attempted or completed suicide. This elevated psychiatric risk is substantially reduced when same-sex married individuals are compared with their opposite-sex married siblings, which is consistent with a substantial role of familial (e.g., genetic and shared environmental) common causes of both same-sex orientation and psychiatric risk. I discuss the study’s strengths, including its huge, comprehensive sample and its use of objective measures, which avoid some of the potential biases in other studies. I also discuss the study’s limitations and argue that the authors misinterpret the role of shared familial influences as accounting for a “small proportion (less than 20%)” of the elevated psychiatric risk in same-sex married individuals. The proportion shown by their results is much larger than the authors report, and even these larger values are best understood as lower bounds in terms of what could be accounted for by familial common causes. Lastly, I discuss future directions for research aiming to understand elevated psychiatric risk in lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals.

摘要

徐等人。提出了一项针对几乎所有 25 岁以上出生于瑞典的人口的研究，其中他们报告说，同性（与异性相比）已婚人士患抑郁症、药物滥用以及自杀未遂或自杀的风险较高。当同性已婚个体与其异性已婚兄弟姐妹进行比较时，这种升高的精神疾病风险大大降低，这与同性取向和精神疾病的家族（例如遗传和共同环境）常见原因的重要作用是一致的。风险。我讨论了这项研究的优势，包括其庞大、全面的样本以及客观测量的使用，这避免了其他研究中的一些潜在偏差。我还讨论了该研究的局限性，并认为作者误解了共同家庭影响的作用，认为其在同性已婚个体的精神疾病风险升高中只占“一小部分（低于 20%）”。他们的结果显示的比例比作者报告的要大得多，即使这些较大的值也最好被理解为家庭常见原因的下限。最后，我讨论了未来的研究方向，旨在了解女同性恋、男同性恋和双性恋个体较高的精神风险。即使这些较大的值也最好被理解为家庭共同原因的下限。最后，我讨论了未来的研究方向，旨在了解女同性恋、男同性恋和双性恋个体较高的精神风险。即使这些较大的值也最好被理解为家庭共同原因的下限。最后，我讨论了未来的研究方向，旨在了解女同性恋、男同性恋和双性恋个体较高的精神风险。