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Marital Support and Recovery from Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

P. N. Goering*
Affiliation:
Clarke Institute of Psychiatry; Departments of Psychiatry and Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto
W. J. Lancee
Affiliation:
Social and Community Psychiatry, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry; Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
S. J. J. Freeman
Affiliation:
Social and Community Psychiatry, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry; Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
*
Social and Community Psychiatry Section, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, 250 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 1R8, Canada

Abstract

A prospective study of 47 married women who met RDC for major depressive disorder investigated the relationship between the social support provided by the husbands and the post-hospital symptom course of the women. Separate taped semistructured interviews were held with the patient and husband at the time of admission. Six months later, symptom course was rated using the LIFE psychiatric status schedule. Only 51 % of the sample recovered in the six months. Few demographic or clinical factors were related to symptom course. Recovery was predicted by the depressed woman's ratings of the current marital relationship and by the husband's rating of the pre-morbid relationship but not by the husband's level of expressed criticism or his ratings of the current relationship.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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