Spouse concordance for depressive disorders in a community sample

This article describes an analysis of spouse concordance for major depression and for other depressive experiences. Respondents to a community survey of married men and women (N = 586 couples) completed a modified version of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule from which diagnoses of major depression and dysthymia were derived. Subclinical depressive episodes were also identified. A cross-tabulation of husbands' and wives' diagnoses revealed weak concordance for lifetime prevalence of major depression. In contrast, concordance for the experience of depressive episodes, regardless of associated symptomatology, is statistically significant. Contrary to earlier suggestions, concordance does not increase over the length of the marriage, nor is it stronger among divorced couples.