Sexual Orientation Change Efforts Do Not Increase Suicide: Correcting a False Research Narrative.

Sexual orientation change efforts (SOCEs) signify activities designed to change or reduce homosexual orientation. Recent studies have claimed that such therapies increase suicide risk by showing positive associations between SOCE and lifetime suicidality, without excluding behavior that pre-dated SOCE. In this way, Blosnich et al.'s (2020) recent analysis of a national probability sample of 1518 sexual minority persons concluded that SOCE "may compound or create…suicidal ideation and suicide attempts" but after correcting for pre-existing suicidality, SOCE was not positively associated with any form of suicidality. For suicidal ideation, Blosnich et al. reported an adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of 1.92 (95% CI 1.01-3.64); the corrected AOR was .44 (.20-.94). For suicide planning, Blosnich et al.'s AOR was 1.75 (1.01-3.06); corrected was .60 (.32-1.14). For suicide attempts, Blosnich et al.'s AOR was 1.75 (.99-3.08); corrected was .74 (.36-1.43). Undergoing SOCE after expressing suicidal behavior reduced subsequent suicide attempts from 72 to 80%, compared to those not undergoing SOCE, when SOCE followed a prior expression of suicidal ideation (AOR .17, .05-.55), planning (AOR .13, .04-.45) or intention (AOR .10, .03-.30); however, SOCE following an initial suicide attempt did not significantly reduce further attempts. By violating the principle that a cause cannot occur after an effect, Blosnich et al. misstated the correct conclusion. Experiencing SOCE does not result in higher suicidality, as they claim, and may sharply reduce subsequent suicide attempts. Restrictions on SOCE will not reduce suicidal risk among sexual minorities and may deprive them of an important resource for reducing suicide attempts.

Corrigendum: Absence of Behavioral Harm Following Non-efficacious Sexual Orientation Change Efforts: A Retrospective Study of United States Sexual Minority Adults, 2016-2018.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.823647.].

Absence of Behavioral Harm Following Non-efficacious Sexual Orientation Change Efforts: A Retrospective Study of United States Sexual Minority Adults, 2016-2018.

BACKGROUND: Do sexual minority persons who have undergone unsuccessful sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) suffer subsequent psychological or social harm from the attempt? Previous studies have conflated present and past, even pre-SOCE, harm in addressing this question. This study attempts, for the first time, to isolate and examine the question of current psychosocial harm for former SOCE participants among sexual minorities in representative population data. METHOD: Using nationally representative data (n = 1,518) across three cohorts of sexual minorities (centered in 1969, 1987, and 2003) in the United States (U.S.), persons exposed to SOCE were compared with the remainder not exposed to SOCE on two measures of internal distress-psychological distress (Kessler scale) and current mental health-and seven measures of behavioral harm: substance abuse (DUDIT); alcohol dependence (AUDIT-C); self-harm; suicide ideation; suicide planning; suicide intentions; and suicide attempts. RESULTS: The SOCE group was statistically indistinguishable from the non-SOCE group on any measure of harm. For behavioral harm, risk ratios were 0.97-1.02. Harm was equivalent for the two groups despite the SOCE group having experienced higher lifetime and current minority stress, greater childhood adversity, and lower socioeconomic status. Logistic regression models that adjusted for these differences suggest that SOCE exposure reduced the effect of minority stress and childhood adversity for suicide attempts, although this effect did not fully account for the equivalence between the SOCE and non-SOCE groups. CONCLUSION: Despite higher exposure to factors predicting behavioral harm-minority stress, childhood adversity, and lower socioeconomic background-sexual minority persons who had undergone failed SOCE therapy did not suffer higher psychological or social harm. Concerns to restrict or ban SOCE due to elevated harm are unfounded. Further study is needed to clarify the reasons for the absence of harm from SOCE.

Efficacy and risk of sexual orientation change efforts: a retrospective analysis of 125 exposed men.

BACKGROUND: Voluntary therapeutic interventions to reduce unwanted same-sex sexuality are collectively known as sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE).  Currently almost all evidence addressing the contested question whether SOCE is effective or safe consists of anecdotes or very small sample qualitative studies of persons who currently identify as sexual minority and thus by definition failed to change.  We conducted this study to examine the efficacy and risk outcomes for a group of SOCE participants unbiased by current sexual orientation.       Methods: We examined a convenience sample of 125 men who had undergone SOCE for homosexual-to-heterosexual change in sexual attraction, identity and behavior, and for positive and negative changes in psychosocial problem domains (depression, suicidality, self-harm, self-esteem, social function, and alcohol or substance abuse).  Mean change was assessed by parametric (t-test) and nonparametric (Wilcoxon sign rank test) significance tests.   Results: Exposure to SOCE was associated with significant declines in same-sex attraction (from 5.7 to 4.1 on the Kinsey scale, p <.000), identification (4.8 to 3.6, p < .000), and sexual activity (2.4 to 1.5 on a 4-point scale of frequency, p < .000). From 45% to 69% of SOCE participants achieved at least partial remission of unwanted same-sex sexuality; full remission was achieved by 14% for sexual attraction and identification, and 26% for sexual behavior.  Rates were higher among married men, but 4-10% of participants experienced increased same-sex orientation after SOCE.  From 0.8% to 4.8% of participants reported marked or severe negative psychosocial change following SOCE, but 12.1% to 61.3% reported marked or severe positive psychosocial change.  Net change was significantly positive for all problem domains.   Conclusion: SOCE was perceived as an effective and safe therapeutic practice by this sample of participants.  We close by offering a unifying understanding of discrepant findings within this literature and caution against broad generalizations of our results.

The Case for Mom and Dad.

Is the system of norms comprising traditional, natural marriage-featuring formally enacted, irrevocable, exclusive man/woman sexual union preceded by chastity-essential for children's development and well-being, as Catholic teaching asserts? Review of an extensive body of diverse research finds that, compared to children continuously living with two parents, married parents, or their own biological parents, children in other family arrangements consistently experience lower emotional well-being, physical health, and academic achievement. Competing research has variously attributed this difference to a lack of married parents, two parents, complementary man/woman parents, or family stability, but these possibilities have not previously been studied in combination. To address this question, family structure differences and determinants of child well-being (reverse coded to show child distress) were examined using the 2008-2018 National Health Interview Surveys (n = 82,635). Adjusted odds ratios (AOR) for child emotional problems were higher with less than two parents (AOR = 1.42, 95% CI 1.27-1.56), unmarried parents (1.46, 95% CI 1.31-1.61), unstable parents (1.55, 95% CI 1.27-1.76), or less than two biological parents (AOR = 1.70, 95% CI 1.55-2.87 for one biological parent; 4.77, 95% CI 3.95-5.77 for no biological parents). When combined in the same model, only the lack of joint biological parentage accounted for higher distress, with outcomes significantly worse without the biological father than without the biological mother (interaction AOR = 1.33, 95% CI 1.04-1.71). This evidence strongly supports the claim that maximum child development occurs only in the persistent care of both of the child's own biological parents. Marriage benefits children primarily by ensuring such care. Implications are discussed. SUMMARY: Children raised apart from the care of both natural parents consistently experience lower developmental outcomes. Traditional, religious marriage norms-a lifelong, exclusive sexual union between man and woman-benefit children by establishing strong conditions that promote such care. More than any other family arrangement, marriage assures to children the care of their own mom and dad.

Sample Errors Call Into Question Conclusions Regarding Same-Sex Married Parents: A Comment on "Family Structure and Child Health: Does the Sex Composition of Parents Matter?"

Because of classification errors reported by the National Center for Health Statistics, an estimated 42 % of the same-sex married partners in the sample for this study are misclassified different-sex married partners, thus calling into question findings regarding same-sex married parents. Including biological parentage as a control variable suppresses same-sex/different-sex differences, thus obscuring the data error. Parentage is not appropriate as a control because it correlates nearly perfectly (+.97, gamma) with the same-sex/different-sex distinction and is invariant for the category of joint biological parents.

Invisible Victims: Delayed Onset Depression among Adults with Same-Sex Parents.

The relationship of elevated depression risk recently discovered among adult persons raised by same-sex parents with possible precipitating conditions in childhood has not previously been acknowledged. This study tests whether such inattention is supportable. Logistic regression based risk ratios were estimated from longitudinal measures of mental health outcomes observed in three waves (at ages 15, 22, and 28) of the US National Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 15,701). At age 28, the adults raised by same-sex parents were at over twice the risk of depression (CES-D: risk ratio 2.6, 95% CI 1.4-4.6) as persons raised by man-woman parents. These findings should be interpreted with caution. Elevated risk was associated with imbalanced parental closeness and parental child abuse in family of origin; depression, suicidality, and anxiety at age 15; and stigma and obesity. More research and policy attention to potentially problematic conditions for children with same-sex parents appears warranted.

Assessing analytical variability of measurement of vitamin A in corn-soy blend.

Two multilaboratory investigations were conducted by SUSTAIN to assess variability in the measurement of vitamin A, the marker used to verify levels of vitamin premix addition to enriched/fortified food aid products, including the widely distributed corn-soy blend (CSB). CSB specifications identify AACC Approved Method 86-06 or equivalent methods for vitamin A analysis, however there is no requirement to demonstrate equivalency. CSB samples with known and blinded levels of vitamin A and a reference standard were analyzed by 16 laboratories using their respective methods. Calculated coefficients of variation across all laboratories and methods for unknown samples and reference standard were 35 and 7.1%, respectively, suggesting the largest source of variation is the vitamin extraction procedure. Laboratories generally overestimated low levels and underestimated high levels of vitamin A within the range of 6000 and 16 000 IU/lb. Only two laboratories demonstrated excellent internal precision (+/- 300 IU vitamin A/lb) and reported values within 95% confidence interval for all blinded samples. Results of this study have implications both for quality control in food aid products (due to the use of vitamin A as a marker) and for regulatory oversight of vitamin A content in commercial food products.

Cigarette smoking during pregnancy: independent associations with religious participation.

OBJECTIVE: Data from a national health survey were used to test the hypothesis of a negative association of smoking in pregnancy and three measures of religious participation and importance. METHODS: The 2002 National Survey of Family Growth included 2395 women aged 15 to 44 years with a history of at least one pregnancy in the five years before interview. An association between religious participation and cigarette smoking during the last pregnancy was assessed in bivariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: The rate of smoking during the last pregnancy was 4% (95% confidence limit [CL] 2-7%) among those who attended service more than once weekly and 24% (95% CL 20-30%) among those who never attended (chi-square 68, P < 0.0001). In logistic regression models compared with those who never attended, those attending once a week or more were only one-fifth as likely to smoke during pregnancy among European Americans (adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence limits of 0.22, 0.12-0.39) and Hispanics (0.28 95% CL, 0.11-0.73), and one-half as likely to smoke among African Americans (0.53 95% CL, 0.16-1.69). Significant associations were also observed for affiliation and importance of religion. CONCLUSION: The frequency of attendance at religious services, affiliation, and importance were independently inversely associated with smoking during pregnancy in American women. The strength of these associations varied among ethnic groups.

Didemnins and tunichlorin: novel natural products from the marine tunicate Trididemnum solidum.

Didemnins A, B, and C, cyclic depsipeptides previously reported by our laboratory from the Caribbean tunicate Trididemnum solidum, have now been synthesized and, in the process, their structures have been revised to include the new amino acid (3S,4R,5S)-isostatine,C2H5CH(CH3)CHNH2CHOHCH2COOH. All other isomers of isostatine have also been prepared. Didemnin B is currently in Phase II clinical trials as an anticancer agent, and the antineoplastic activity, as well as the antiviral and immunosuppressive activities, of the didemnins are reviewed. A highly unusual porphynoid has also been isolated from T. solidum. The compound has been named tunichlorin and is apparently the first nickel-containing chlorin (and only the second nickel-containing porphyrin-related compound) identified from a living organism.