Marital Adjustment in Patients of Depression Under Going Treatment at an Outpatient Clinic of Tertiary Care Hospital.

ABSTRACT

Background: Depression is projected to become the 2nd worldwide leading cause of disability by 2020. Marriage is one of the principal facets when it comes to interpersonal context of Depression. Th ere is evidence supporting bidirectional casual eff ect between Depression and marital satisfaction. However the phenomenon of marital adjustment and its related variable has not been given much attention in the Pakistan. Aim of the study Th e primary objective is to determine the frequency of marital adjustment by using validated Urdu version of Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale in patients with Depression, who are under treatment at Psychiatry outpatient clinics at tertiary care hospital in Karachi. Method: Patient presenting in outpatient clinic and diagnosed with Depression for at least last 6 months according to ICD-10 criteria by Consultant psychiatrist, who were aged between 15-65 were included. Patients who had documented co morbid of substance use or any unstable serious general medical condition were excluded. Th e severity of Depression was evaluated by using Urdu validated Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. Marital adjustment is determined by using Urdu validated version of Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale. Result: Only 8.6% were well adjusted in their marital life, and all were females; most of them were living in nuclear setting, unemployed, severely depressed, educated above intermediate, aged above 30 years, and had duration of illness more than 12 months. Th e association of marital adjustment and severity of Depression is insignifi cant. It further revealed to have insubstantial diff erence on KANSAS scale between both genders. Th e odd ratio of duration of illness was 7.6, which indicated that the longer the duration of illness, the more positively it is interrelated to the marital adjustment. Being employedand above 30 years of age wereinversely related to marital satisfaction with odd ratio of 6.1 and 5.4 respectively. However, the correlation between other independent variables and marital adjustment were insignifi cant in both genders. Conclusion: Th is study confi rms the presence of high frequency i.e. 91.4% of marital dissatisfaction in Depression in both male and females, irrespective of their severity of Depression. No substantial diff erence was established between both the genders based on KANSAS score. Longer duration of illness, unemployment, and above 30 age have protective eff ect on quality of marital life.