Krishnappa Aranga Ramalingam Praphaukar Raaj, Arumugam Subramanian Senthil Kumar
BACKGROUND Even as marriage tends to protect many from suicidal thoughts and attempts, by cushioning the mind from extrinsic stressful events, it also brings into play an inherent set of additional stressors. Interpersonal conflicts including disjointed and disdainful behaviour, emotional and cultural duress, spousal and substance abuse, financial demands, and an occasional conjugal jealousy may cause significant psychiatric morbidity. This coupled with impulsive traits increase suicidal risk, which can be countered by a satisfactory and well-adjusted marriage. We wanted to estimate the intricate variables like impulsiveness, couple satisfaction, adjustment, and their impact on suicidal intent in arranged and love marriages. METHODS A cross-sectional observational study with 39 and 41 suicidal attempters with arranged and love marriage respectively using sociodemographic profile and Barratt's impulsiveness scale, presumptive life events scale and Beck's suicide intent scale, along with couple satisfaction and adjustment scales. RESULTS In this South Indian study, both the groups showed preponderance in suicidal attempts of males, those marrying earlier, went high school or above, from rural and nuclear families, of low socioeconomic group, from alcohol-related quarrels, but minimal correlation with life events. Children did not have significant effect in both groups. The love group had 86% more unemployed and skilled workers, slightly (7%) more impulsiveness, 43% more borderline traits, 66% more attempts before the first anniversary. Spouses from arranged group had 14% lesser couple satisfaction, 7% lesser adjustment, were 26% more depressed, responded 19% more to acute suicidal ideation, had 36% more frequent attempts, along with significantly higher intent. CONCLUSIONS With respect to intent and recurrence, couple satisfaction and parental support were found to be more protective in the arranged group. Adjustment was better with higher satisfaction in the love group. It has been reiterated that focus on marital quality constructs can save both the marriage and the lives, through community-based programs.
