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Assortative mating among in-patients with primary affective disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Kathleen Ries Merikangas  and
Duane G. Spiker
Kathleen Ries Merikangas*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Duane G. Spiker
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
*
1 Address for correspondence: Dr Kathleen Merikangas, Yale University School of Medicine. 904 Howard Avenue, Suite 2A, New Haven. CT 06519. USA
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Synopsis

Assortative mating among 56 married in-patients with primary affective disorders and their spouses was studied by determining the prevalence of psychiatric illness among the spouses by means of direct interviews and standardized diagnostic criteria. A high degree of assortative mating among both male and female patients was observed for total psychiatric illness, broad spectrum affective illness and major depression. A significantly higher prevalence of psychiatric and affective illness was found among the first-degree relatives of the ill spouses when compared with the first-degree relatives of the well spouses. There was a high degree of diagnostic concordance between the patients and spouses for both affective illness and alcoholism, with a higher degree of assortative mating among bipolar patients than among unipolar patients. The finding in this study of an increased prevalence of psychiatric disorder in the first-degree relatives of the ill spouses would support the hypothesis that there is a tendency for individuals with a predisposition to psychiatric illness to marry, rather than the existence of a marital interaction which causes an increased concordance for psychiatric illness.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , November 1982 , pp. 753 - 764
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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