Marital intimacy and depression.
Recent research has suggested that the absence of an intimate, confiding relationship may be a vulnerability factor in the development of depression in women living under adverse circumstances. This study demonstrates a significant association between severity of depression and deficiencies of marital intimacy; depressed patients with the lowest levels of marital intimacy failed to improve at one month follow-up, while 36% of the spouses of the depressed patients had symptoms of non-psychotic emotional illness. The depressed patients and their spouses' perception of their marital intimacy differ, but these differences appear not to be solely related to the spouse's depression.
D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000209:etiology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D012737:Sex Factors