The relation of marital complaints to family history was examined in a sample of 1,624 psychiatric outpatients. Marital complaints were recognized to be an aspect of a broader "depressive spectrum disorder " with distinctive age, gender, alcohol, and neurotic depressive symptom characteristics; however, holding constant the depressive spectrum characteristics, a specific independent relation of marital complaints to family history of parental marital discord was verified. It is concluded that marital problems have two primary etiologies in the psychiatric population, one as part of a broader depressive spectrum disorder and the other a more specific familial behavior patterning. In a recent report, Henry and Overall (1974) examined demographic and symptom characteristics of psychiatric outpatients who presented "marital problems " as a chief complaint. An interesting observation was that patients with complaints of marital problems
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Overall et al. (1974) studied this question.