Skip to main content
×
×
Home

Marital Problems and Treatment Outcome in Depressed Women a Clinical Trial of Social Work Intervention

  • Roslyn H. Corney (a1)
Abstract

In a clinical trial investigating the effectiveness of social work intervention with depressed women patients in general practice, 80 women were randomly allocated to an experimental group for referral to attached social workers or to a control group for routine treatment by their GPs. They were reassessed at 6 and 12 months. The results indicated that women who had major marital problems were more likely to be depressed at follow-up than those with good relationships. However, patients with marital difficulties in the experimental group made more improvement than the controls. Women initially assessed as suffering from ‘acute on chronic’ depression and having major marital difficulties were found to benefit most from social work intervention.

Copyright
References
Hide All
Bothwell, S. & Weissman, M. M. (1977) Social impairments four years after an acute depressive episode. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 47, 231237.
Brannen, J. & Collard, J. (1982) Marriages in Trouble. London: Tavistock.
Briscoe, C. W. & Smith, J. B. (1973) Depression and marital turmoil. Archives of General Psychiatry, 29, 811917.
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978) Social Origins of Depression: A Study of Psychiatric Disorder in Women. London: Tavistock.
Butrym, Z. (1968) Medical Social Work in Action. Bell: London.
Chester, R. (1971) Health and marriage breakdown: experience of a sample of divorced women. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 25, 231235.
Clare, A. W. & Cairns, V. E. (1978) Design, development and use of a standardized interview to assess maladjustment and dysfunction in community studies. Psychological Medicine, 8, 589604.
Clare, A. W. & Corney, R. H. (1982) Social Work and Primary Health Care. London: Academic Press.
Cooper, B., Fry, J. & Galton, G. (1969) A longitudinal study of psychiatric morbidity in a general practice population. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 23, 210217.
Cooper, B., Fry, J. & Galton, G., Harwin, B. G., Depla, C. & Shepherd, M. (1975) Mental health care in the community: an evaluative study. Psychological Medicine, 5, 372380.
Corney, R. H. (1981a) The Effectiveness of Social Work in the Management of Depressed Women Patients in General Practice. PhD thesis, University of London.
Corney, R. H. (1981b) Client perspectives in a general practice attachment. British Journal of Social Work, 11, 159170.
Corney, R. H. (1985) The Effectiveness of Attached Social Workers in the Management of Depressed Female Patients in General Practice. Psychological Medicine Monograph no. 6. Cambridge University Press.
Dominian, J. (1980) Marriage in Britain: 1945–1980. London: Study Commission on the Family.
Gibbons, J. S., Butler, J., Urwin, P. & Gibbons, J. L. (1978) Evaluation of a social work service for self poisoning patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 111118.
Goldberg, D. P., Cooper, B., Eastwood, M. R., Kedward, H. B. & Shepherd, M. (1970) A standardized psychiatric interview for use in community surveys. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 24, 1823.
Hicks, D. (1976) Primary Health Care. London: HMSO.
Hollis, F. (1964) Casework: A Psychosocial Therapy. New York: Random House.
Home Office (1979) Marriage Matters: A Consultative Document by the Working Party on Marriage Guidance. London: HMSO.
Kedward, H. (1969) The outcome of neurotic illness in the community. Social Psychiatry, 4, 14.
Kincey, J. A. (1974) General practice and clinical psychology – some arguments for a closer liaison. Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 24, 882888.
Mayer, J. E. & Timms, N. (1970) The Client Speaks. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Miller, P. Mc. & Ingham, J. C. (1976) Friends, confidants and symptoms. Social Psychiatry, 11, 5158.
Mitchell, M. (1981) Someone To Turn To. University Press: Aberdeen.
Paykel, E. S., Myers, J. K. & Dienelt, M. (1969) Life events and depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 31, 753760.
Rounsaville, B. J., Weissman, M. M., Prusoff, B. A. & Herceg-Baron, R. L. (1979) Marital disputes and treatment outcome in depressed women. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 20, 483490.
Rounsaville, B. J. B., Prusoff, B. A. & Weissman, M. M. (1980) The course of marital disputes in depressed women: a 48 month follow up study. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 21, 111118.
Sainsbury, E. (1975) Social Work with Families. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Shepherd, M. (1974) General practice, mental illness and the British National Health Service. American Journal of Public Health, 64, 230234.
Shepherd, M., Harwin, B. G., Depla, C. & Cairns, V. (1979) Social work and the primary care of mental disorder. Psychological Medicine, 9, 661669.
Weissman, M. M. & Paykel, E. S. (1974) The Depressed Woman: a study in Social Relationships. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wootton, B. (1978) The social work task today. Community Care, 4 October, 1416.
World Health Organization (1973) Psychiatry and Primary Medical Care. Geneva: WHO.
Recommend this journal

Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this journal to your organisation's collection.

The British Journal of Psychiatry
  • ISSN: 0007-1250
  • EISSN: 1472-1465
  • URL: /core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry
Please enter your name
Please enter a valid email address
Who would you like to send this to? *
×

Metrics

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 19 *
Loading metrics...

Abstract views

Total abstract views: 66 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between 2nd January 2018 - 12th June 2018. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Marital Problems and Treatment Outcome in Depressed Women a Clinical Trial of Social Work Intervention

  • Roslyn H. Corney (a1)
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.

×

Reply to: Submit a response


Your details


Conflicting interests

Do you have any conflicting interests? *