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Review
. 2017 May 8:13:421-443.
doi: 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032816-045111. Epub 2017 Mar 16.

Lovesick: How Couples' Relationships Influence Health

Janice K Kiecolt-Glaser  1   2 , Stephanie J Wilson  1
Affiliations
Review

Lovesick: How Couples' Relationships Influence Health

Janice K Kiecolt-Glaser et al. Annu Rev Clin Psychol. .

Abstract

This review highlights recent advances in research addressing intimate partner relationships and health. Consideration of the strong mutual influences that the members of a couple have on each other's mental and physical health trajectories provides a new way to view the health implications of couples' convergence or interdependence; marital closeness can have a clear downside when one partner has mental or physical health problems. Couples' interconnectedness can also be leveraged to promote better treatment outcomes. Major themes include the pivotal role of depression and the importance of gender differences in the pathways from the marital relationship to physiological functioning and health. The health risks and benefits of support are weighed. Additionally, two prominent emerging paths from marital distress to poor health are emphasized: sleep problems and metabolic alterations that promote obesity and its comorbidities.

Keywords: convergence; depression; interdependence; marriage; metabolism; sleep.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual framework summarizing the pathways by which partners’ health may converge over time. Partners influence each other’s health behaviors and eventual development of disease directly through interaction, emotion transmission, and shared behavior and experience. Partners’ level of closeness, their marital satisfaction, and age may modify their degree of convergence.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Model that links marital discord to chronic illness and mortality through emerging mechanisms, including sleep, diet, metabolic processes, and obesity.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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