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"It's used for example to evaluate the effectiveness of antidepressants," Spitzer says. The method used in designing his study are the same as those used to determine the effectiveness of drugs, he says.
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In fact, he said, to dismiss his survey would be to dismiss an awful lot of psychological and psychiatric research. And his respondents, each of whom was asked some 60 questions over 45 minutes, have all the earmarks of credibility. And, he said, it doesn't mean they aren't telling the truth.Ī well-designed survey, he said, can determine whether or not a respondent is credible. "The sample is terrible, totally tainted, totally unrepresentative of the gay and lesbian community," said David Elliot, a spokesman for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington.īut Spitzer says while the people in his sample were unusual - more religious than the general population - it doesn't mean their experiences can be dismissed. Another 23 percent were referred by the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, which says most of its members consider homosexuality a developmental disorder. Haldeman, however, noted that some 43 percent of those sampled were referred by religious groups that condemn homosexuality. "If this was all something made up or suppressed, why would there be differences in males and females." It is known that female sexuality is more fluid. "Now that's actually what you might expect from the literature. "We found that women in our sample moved from a less extreme homosexual to a more heterosexual level than did men," Spitzer says. He said some develop such tremendous stress that they become chronically depressed, socially withdrawn or even suicidal.īut Spitzer says his study shows that some homosexuals making some effort, usually for a few years, make the change.įindings from the study also verify other work about female sexuality, Spitzer says. In fact, he said, many of his subjects had been despondent and even suicidal themselves, for the opposite reason - "precisely because they had previously thought there was no hope for them, and they had been told by many mental health professionals that there was no hope for them, they had to just learn to live with their homosexual feelings." He said those who changed their orientation had satisfying heterosexual sex at least monthly and never or rarely thought of someone of the same sex during intercourse. Spitzer says he spoke to 143 men and 57 women who say they changed their orientation from gay to straight, and concluded that 66 percent of the men and 44 percent of women reached what he called good heterosexual functioning - a sustained, loving heterosexual relationship within the past year and getting enough emotional satisfaction to rate at least a seven on a 10-point scale.
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Robert Spitzer, a psychiatry professor at Columbia University, said he began his study as a skeptic - believing, as major mental health organizations do, that sexual orientation cannot be changed, and attempts to do so can even cause harm.īut Spitzer's study, which has not yet been published or reviewed, seems to indicate otherwise. Critics, though, say the study's subjects may be deluding themselves and that the subject group was scientifically invalid because many of them were referred by anti-gay religious groups.ĭr. Can gay men and women become heterosexual?Ī controversial new study says yes - if they really want to.