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For instance, among the research we include here under “of interest to practitioners” are several ethical discussions of how to approach therapy with patients reporting dissatisfaction with their sexual orientation. Such limitations do not mean there is no useful research on conversion therapy. Some researchers found success in depressing same-sex arousal-often with the use of severe techniques-but often that did not translate into increased heterosexual arousal or ability to sustain a satisfying opposite-sex sexual relationship. Many of these studies sample exclusively religious populations, and so their conclusions generally reflect more about religious self-identifications than any indication that sexual orientation can genuinely change. Some subjects who claimed movement from gay to straight are actually more accurately described as bisexual, but were not initially coded as such. Many researchers sympathetic to conversion therapy do not actually assess changes in sexual orientation or arousal patterns, but in behavior, which is not a true gauge of orientation. Most of the studies lacked control groups, and none used nationally representative probability samples. All of the studies we identified rely on self-reports, and those who wish to change their sexual orientation enough to seek therapeutic intervention may be inclined toward a bias in assessing or reporting their own attractions. The research on conversion therapy is limited by the difficulty of empirically assessing a person’s sexual orientation. The remaining 34 studies do not make an empirical determination about whether CT can alter sexual orientation but may offer useful observations to help guide practitioners who treat LGB patients.
Only one study concluded that sexual orientation change efforts could succeed-although only in a minority of its participants, and the study has several limitations: its entire sample self-identified as religious and it is based on self-reports, which can be biased and unreliable. Of those, 12 concluded that CT is ineffective and/or harmful, finding links to depression, suicidality, anxiety, social isolation and decreased capacity for intimacy.
Thirteen of those studies included primary research. Overview: We identified 47 peer-reviewed studies that that met our criteria for adding to knowledge about whether conversion therapy (CT) can alter sexual orientation without causing harm.