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You like big-budget rom-coms, so you know the drill: Opposites attract. Those two characters who can’t stand each other in act one? Chasing each other through an airport by act three. Well…apparently science does not go to the movies. In fact, according to a new study, genetic similarity may determine who’s going to partner with whom—especially if the similarity is in what kind of psychiatric disorder you have.
Here’s the approach: A study in JAMA Psychiatry looked at 707,263 Swedish people, all with at least one psychiatric disease: ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety and depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, autism spectrum disorders, and others. The study also looked at individuals with physical ailments—diabetes, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and so on. (How heritable all these things are is open for debate—they cross multiple genes and environment plays a factor. But all have some genetic component.) And for every person with either a physical or psychological condition, five unaffected subjects were included as control.
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From there, the researchers looked at people’s romantic entanglements over 18 months. People with psychiatric disorders were more likely to end up with someone with a psychiatric disorder, and the chances were higher (marginally) that they’d share the same illness.
Read full, original post: Not only do opposites not attract, but just the opposite
