An odd silver lining in unhappy marriages

“Freud said that ambivalent, conflicted relationships would predispose the survivor to pathological grief,” said Holly G. Prigerson, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychiatry. According to a study she directed, Freud was wrong. “We found that losing a partner in a harmonious marriage puts you at greater risk of health problems. Your health care costs are lower if you are widowed in a discordant marriage.”

For the study, which was published in the June issue of The Gerontologist, the researchers interviewed 694 people who were part of a longitudinal study on successful aging and who remained married between the initial survey and the follow-up. The investigators then compared the health care costs of the married people to those of the widowed people. They also looked at the health costs of widows and widowers from happy and unhappy marriages, as characterized by answers to questions posed to the couples before one spouse died.

The researchers found that annual health care costs were $2,384 for widowed persons compared with $1,498 for those who were married. Health care costs for the surviving partners in happy marriages were $2,766 compared with $2,100 for survivors of unhappy marriages.

Prigerson said the sense of loss for the survivor in a happy marriage is often so profound it can be defined as “traumatic grief syndrome,” which can cause an array of health disorders. “Doctors should realize that older widowed people are at increased risk,” Prigerson said. “Many widowed persons in the study needed mental health care, but few were receiving it.”