SPOUSE SIMILARITY FOR LIFETIME PSYCHIATRIC HISTORY IN THE GENERAL-POPULATION

Background. Most studies of spouse similarity for psychiatric disorder s have focused on clinical samples and are thus limited by selection b ias. This study is, to our knowledge, the first comprehensive investig ation of spouse similarity for lifetime psychiatric history in a gener al population sample using standardized diagnostic criteria. Methods. We studied 519 pairs of spouses residing in Edmonton, Canada who compl eted the Diagnostic Interview Schedule psychiatric interview. In each pair, one spouse belonged to a random subsample of persons who had par ticipated in a large population survey and was re-interviewed. Associa tion between spouses for lifetime DSM-III psychiatric disorders was an alysed with bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. R esults. We observed significant spousal association for lifetime prese nce of affective disorders and for the spectrum of antisocial personal ity and addiction disorders. Antisocial personality in one spouse was also associated with anxiety disorders in the other spouse, namely pos t-traumatic stress disorder in wives and phobia in husbands; similarly , drug abuse/dependence in wives was associated with generalized anxie ty in husbands and male drug abuse/dependence was associated with fema le post-traumatic stress disorder. Dysthymia in wives was associated w ith generalized anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder in husbands . Conclusions. The existence of associations between spouses for the p resence of psychiatric disorders, either similar or different, has sig nificant implications for both clinicians and researchers. Future rese arch should aim at exploring the aetiological mechanisms of these asso ciations.