Abstract
OBJECTIVES: We sought to evaluate the characteristics and correlates of psychiatric problems in the wives of men with substance-related disorders. METHODS: Four-hundred and fifty women whose husbands had substance-related disorders were selected by purposive sampling for inclusion in the study. RESULTS: The prevalence of psychiatric symptoms in our sample was 67.1% (n = 302). Depression was the most prevalent symptom
(n = 63) and the least was psychosis (n = 5). The prevalence of psychiatric symptoms was highest (26.0%) among women with opiate-dependent spouses (n = 117), and those with hallucinogen-dependent spouses had the lowest prevalence (4.2%). We found a significant relationship between the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and demographic factors including age, women's education, spouse's education, women's job, duration of marriage, number of children, monthly income, and history of psychiatric disorders with the exception of spouses' jobs. CONCLUSIONS: There is a high prevalence of psychiatric symptoms among the wives of men with substance-related disorders and there is need to devise mechanism to reduce the high prevalence of psychiatric disorders.