Treatment of Marital Disharmony Where One Spouse Has A Primary Affective Disorder (Manic Depressive Illness): I. General Overview—100 Couples*

This paper gives a general overview of the treatment of marital disharmony where one spouse has a primary affective disorder. This is the first of a series of clinical‐statistical studies on the subject. Neither purely clinical conclusions without the insights of statistics nor vice versa are sufficient methodologically. By treatment we mean a variety of interventions ranging from psychotherapies to somatotherapies (pharmaceuticals and/or electroconvulsive therapy [ECT]). By marital disharmony we mean where the nature of the marital relationship is such that it leads to sufficient pain in either or both spouses to warrent treatment.