Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T04:31:24.809Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Psychiatric patients who marry each other

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

John Shanks*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, St George's Hospital, London
Paul Atkins
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, St George's Hospital, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr John Shanks, Department of Psychiatry, St George's Hospital, Blackshaw Road, London SW17 0QT.

Synopsis

Health care workers often advise patients with chronic psychiatric disability against marrying each other. A survey of a group of such marriages revealed no evidence of the predicted ill-effects, but rather a trend towards improvement after the marriage. There is a discrepancy between professional expectations and actual outcome of these marriages.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berry, J. M. & Shapiro, A. (1975). Married mentally handicapped patients in the community. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 68, 795798.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blacker, C. P. (1958). Disruption of marriage. Lancet i, 578.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craft, A. & Craft, M. (1979). Handicapped Married Couples. Routledge and Kegan Paul: London.Google Scholar
Daily Telegraph (1978). Psychiatrist halts patients' wedding; 24 02.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1908). Civilised sexual morality and modern nervousness. In Collected Papers, Vol. 2, p. 90. Hogarth Press: London (1946).Google Scholar
Greengross, W. (1976). Entitled to Love, p. 27. Malaby Press: London.Google Scholar
Griffith, J. M. (1964). Survey of married patients. Botleys Park Hospital: Chertsey, Surrey.Google Scholar
Haskey, J. (1982). The proportion of marriages ending in divorce. Population Trends 27, 48.Google Scholar
Haskey, J. (1983). Marital status before marriage and age at marriage. Population Trends 32, 414.Google Scholar
Kreitman, N. (1968). Married couples admitted to mental hospitals. British Journal of Psychiatry 114, 699718.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luys, J. (1895). Reciprocal morbid attraction of the insane. Referred to by Meyer, A. (1895). A review of the signs of degeneration and methods of registration. American Journal of Insanity 52, 344.Google Scholar
Mattinson, J. (1970). Marriage and Mental Handicap, pp. 203208. Duckworth: London.Google Scholar
Perske, R. (1972). The dignity of risk and the mentally retarded. Mental Retardation 10, 2527.Google ScholarPubMed
Post, F. (1962). The social orbit of psychiatric patients. Journal of Mental Science 108, 759771.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Quinton, D., Rutter, M. & Rowlands, O. (1976). An evaluation of an interview assessment of marriage. Psychological Medicine 6, 577584.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Registrar General (1971). Statistical Review of England and Wales for Year 1967, Part III, Commentary p. 94. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. (1966). Children of Sick Parents, p. 107. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Slater, E., Hare, E. H. & Prince, J. S. (1971). Marriage and fertility of psychiatric patients compared with national data. Social Biology 18 (Supplement), S60S73.Google ScholarPubMed
Sturt, E. (1984). Community care in Camberwell. A two-year follow-up of a cohort of long-term users. British Journal of Psychiatry 145, 178186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vaughn, C. E. & Leff, J. P. (1976). The influence of family and social factors on the course of psychiatric illness. British Journal of Psychiatry 129, 125137.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed