Married Mental Patients in Crisis: A Research Report
DOROTHY MILLER 1, and
ROBERT C. BARNHOUSE 2
1 Research Specialist, Social Research Laboratory, California Department of Mental Hygiene, 3330 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco, Calif. 94118
2 Research Assistant, Social Research Laboratory, California Department of Mental Hygiene, 3330 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco, Calif. 94118
Married hospitalized mental patients differ significantly from unmarried patients; they exhibit fewer overt psychotic symptoms and have greater financial, social, and emotional resources. Their complaints are likely to be of an interpersonal or environmental nature involving the marriage partner. Yet married patients receive a standard type of treatment including ECT, drugs, and group therapy; very little family therapy is offered. The authors feel that marital conflict and environmental problems should be included in the treatment of married patients if an effective reentry into society is to be attained.
