Partners in adversity. III. Mood status after the event.

This paper presents further results from a longitudinal study of three groups of married women undertaken in Edinburgh. Each group shared a common stressful experience. In the first group the marital partner had recently died; in the second the marital partner had recently experienced a myocardial infarction (MI) and the third group consisted of women recently entering a Women's Aid refuge. Interviews were completed shortly following the adverse experiences and where possible again about 3 months later. This report presents details of the (self-reported) mood status of the respondents at both assessment occasions in terms of the degree, form and change in symptomatic distress over what were equivalent time periods for the three groups. Mood status was determined on the basis of the conventionally scored 30-item GHQ (General Health Questionnaire) and according to a criterion-based scoring procedure. On this basis at initial interview almost 8 out of 10 of the widows were above the advised GHQ cut-point, almost 6 out of 10 of the refuge seekers and over 4 out of 10 of the coronary wives. At follow-up these proportions had almost halved for the widows and coronary wives but had changed very little for those few refuge-seekers successfully re-interviewed. According to a criterion-based measure at initial interview, the recent widows had an anxiety rate 5.2 times and a depression rate ten times that of a general population sample of women. Details of the changes in mood status amongst the groups over the follow-up are presented.