Marital dissatisfaction and incidence of major depressive episode in a community sample

The association between marital dissatisfaction at baseline and 12-month in cidence of major depressive episode (MDE) was examined in a community sampl e of married individuals from the New Haven Epidemiologic Catchment Area pr ogram (N = 904) who did not meet criteria for MDE at baseline. Results indi cate that marital dissatisfaction was associated with increased incidence o f MDE, with a significant risk ratio of 2.7 and an attributable risk of 29. 5%. Thus, dissatisfied spouses were nearly 3 times more likely than nondiss atisfied spouses to develop an MDE during the year, and nearly 30% of the n ew occurrences of MDE were associated with marital dissatisfaction. The ass ociation between marital dissatisfaction and risk of MDE (a) remained signi ficant when controlling for demographics and depression history and (b) was not moderated by sex or by depression history. Findings suggest that marit al dissatisfaction may be etiologically related to major depression.