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This study examines the impact of major depressive illness on spouses of depressed patients. The aim of the study was to attempt to conceptualize the gender differences in the manner in which spouses experience their partner's disorder. Forty-eight spouses of depressed patients (22 females and 26 males) and 48 married couples with no mental health diagnosis were selected to participate in this study. The occurrence of depressive symptoms was assessed through the use of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Thinking styles were assessed using the Rosenberg Scale (RS), Hopelessness Scale (HS), and the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ). Perception of the marital relationships was evaluated with the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) Results indicate more depressive symptomatology and distorted thinking patterns with the female spouses of depressed patients. The perceived quality of marital relationships by female spouses was rated to be poorer than that of male counterparts and controls. The results suggest that there exist clear differences in thinking style and perception of marital relationships between female and male spouses who are married to depressed partners. Few publications have addressed the influence of depression on spouses of depressed patients in any comprehensive manner until the late 1980s and early 1990s (Beach, Sandeen, & O'Leary, 1990; Fadden, Bebbington, & Kuipers, 1987a, b; Kuipers, 1987). As studies began to appear in the professional literature, specific focus was placed on the effect that depression had on the marital relationship and how treating the relationship could serve as an intervention for depression (Ilfeld, 1977; Weissman, 1979). More explicitly, it was recognized that some individuals may be more vulnerable to the dysregulatory effects of marital discord than others (Beach & Fincham, 1994; Gotlib & Hooley, 1988). In such cases, it was usually the spouses that were identified as the primary caregiver that experienced the dysregulatory effects. Spouses of depressed patients are often left alone to struggle with daily challenges, receiving little emotional support. Often, the spouse is unable to discuss these problems with the identified patient for fear that this could worsen the respective illness. The chronicity of the disorder may force the nondepressed spouse to assume many of the depressed partner's social roles and external responsibilities. This is frequently accompanied by a change in occupation and the need to seek additional sources of income as well as assuming sole decision making for major life events. Such levels of stress contribute to an increased incidence of various physical symptoms in caretakers and other individuals close to the depressed patient (e.g., hypertension, migraine, diabetes, coronary artery disease, arthritis, etc.) (Coyne et al., 1987; Kreitman, 1964). Coyne and colleagues (1987) noted that 40% of adults living with depressed patients require therapeutic intervention as a result of symptoms of anxiety, depressed mood, fatigue and a sense of helplessness. More important, the relationship between depression and health problems in the non-depressed spouse may be affected by other variables that precede the illness. Previous studies suggest that individuals susceptible to depression are inclined to choose partners with already existing psychological disorders, mainly alcohol and/or drug dependencies and personality disorders (Dattilio, Epstein, & Baucom, 1998; Dattilio & Padesky, 1990). Some of the spouses in these studies came from families with existing psychopathology (Hammen, 1991; Merikangas, Weissman, Prusoff, & John,1988). The majority of research involves samples of depressed female patients (Boyd & Weissman, 1981; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1987; Weissman, 1987). As a result, more inferences have been made about non-depressed males as opposed to females. …

In the present study we report the results of investigations into the serum zinc levels in a clinical study of 19 patients with unipolar depression; 16 normal controls and in three animal models of depression: chronic severe stress (CSS), chronic mild stress (CMS) and olfactory bulbectomy (OB) in rats. CSS model and unipolar depressed patients exhibit lower serum zinc levels than the appropriate controls. There was no effect on the value in CMS or OB models. The present findings confirm previous clinical data indicating decreased serum zinc levels in human depression. Moreover, the data indicate that differences exists in the serum zinc levels in different animal models of depression and suggest a similarity between the CSS model and human depression with regard to this marker. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.