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Abstract
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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. There is evidence supporting bidirectional casual effect 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: The 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. The 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. The association of marital adjustment and severity of Depression is insignificant. It further revealed to have insubstantial difference on KANSAS scale between both genders. The 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 employed and above 30 years of age were inversely 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 insignificant in both genders.
CONCLUSION: This study confirms 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 difference was established between both the genders based on KANSAS score. Longer duration of illness, unemployment, and above 30 age have protective effect on quality of marital life. Key words: Marital adjustment, Depression, KANSAS scale for marital satisfaction, Hamilton Depression Rating scale
Language: en |