Can Brain Biochemical Imbalance be a Causal/Contributory ... | |
Increasing evidence suggests that sexual choice may be a biological phenomenon related to brain chemistry. In a recent study in Science magazine of the brain cells of 41 people, 25 of whom had died of AIDS, the thalamus of heterosexual men was more than twice as large as that in homosexual men. The difference was apparently not caused by AIDS because it was present in the comparison of subgroups of heterosexual and homosexual male AIDS victims. The thalamus of the homosexual male AIDS subgroup was similar in size to the thalamus of woman, according to Dr. Levy of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Being gay or lesbian may not always be a matter of choice, and therefore in such cases homosexuality may be an abnormality that can be modified with chemical treatment.
Case History: A Hispanic bisexual male, age 52, with a long?standing history of both male and female sexual relationships, came to my office in September 1990. He had a diagnosis of dysthymia and major depressive episodes, with significant anxiety and agitation, some impairment in his judgment, impulsive, self-destructive behavior, and insecurity. He claimed he had been raped at age 18 by a man and had been bisexual ever since. In recent years he had been primarily homosexual and had a crush on his heterosexual young male roommate, whom he claimed tortured him by bringing his girl friends to the apartment. He has engaged in numerous acts of unsafe sex, including anal intercourse. After a failed treatment with antidepressants, he underwent a Brain Electrical Activity Map (BEAM). On the brain map, he had a right temporal excess negative to 2.64 standard deviations at 84-100 milliseconds. On the visual evoked response he had left temporal and left posterior frontal excess negative to 2.35 standard deviations, a right central excess negative to 2.58 standard deviations at 212-228 milliseconds, and multiple asymmetries in the temporal and other regions. His EEG was abnormal due to frontally projected arrhythmic sharp activity in theta and alpha ranges. At this point, because he had been treatment-resistant to antidepressants, he was put on tegretol, an anticonvulsant, 200 mg. AM, PM, and bedtime, slowly increased to 800 mg daily.
Approximately one month into the tegretol therapy the patient reported feeling the best he had in years. In addition, he had no sexual interest in men. He reported having had a born again religious experience and became a Jehovah's Witness. At first this was considered a very odd reaction, but on continued observation from November 1990 to September 1991, he has continued with a heterosexual orientation. It would seem conceivable that certain forms of homosexuality are concomitant with psychopathology and have a biological origin of which psychopathology or homosexuality is only a symptom, and that adequate treatment with an organic agent may actually impact the brain chemical abnormality so that homosexuals uncomfortable with their sexuality may become quite comfortable with being strictly heterosexual. In addition, we may look at whether or not religiosity relates to brain chemistry. The relationship between Soviet alcoholism and atheism may be scientifically explored.
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