Researchers have found that certain characteristics predict whether spouses of women with breast cancer will become depressed.

Dr. Frances Marcus Lewis, of the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues had 206 spouses and 206 wives who were recently diagnosed with early breast cancer complete standardized questionnaires. They also used a standard depression scale to spot depressed mood.

Spouses were more likely to be depressed if they were older, less well educated, in shorter term marriages, or in less well-adjusted marriages, they report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Spouses were also more likely to be depressed if they reported greater fears over their wife’s well-being, worried about their job performance, or were more uncertain about their own future. No medical or treatment variables were significant predictors of depressed mood in the spouses.

Depression in spouses of women with breast cancer “deleteriously affects their own and their wife’s functioning and their marital communication,” Lewis and colleagues write. However, no study, until now, has examined why some spouses get depressed whereas others do not, particularly during the first months of diagnosis and treatment, a known difficult time for couples, they point out.

Lewis and colleagues say spouses of women with breast cancer should be screened for depressed mood “and triaged into supportive services to better assist them manage the threat of their wife’s disease.”

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Oncology, March 2008.