Feeling blue? Just get married

New York: If you're feeling blue, marriage could help cheer you up, according to a US study.

Researchers from Ohio State University in Columbus found that marriage provides greater psychological benefits to depressed people than to people who are not depressed before they walk down the aisle.

This remains true even though marriage quality is poorer for depressed individuals.

"Based on previous research, we hypothesised that people who are depressed would have worse marital quality and would therefore experience fewer benefits from marriage but that is not what we found," researcher Adrianne Frech said in a statement.

Frech's team, whose report appears in the June issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, used data from the National Survey of Families and Households to examine 3,066 unmarried people aged 55 years and under.

Using a 12-item test for depression, they considered respondents depressed if they scored 23 or more.

After a follow-up period of five years, researchers identified people who married during the period, asked about the quality of their marriages and how their psychological well-being had changed.

The study excluded participants who married but ended up divorcing in the five years.

Researchers found that the participants who married within the five-year period scored an average of about 3.5 points less on the depression test than those who remained single.

Of the depressed participants, those who got married scored an average 7.5 points lower on the mood scale than the people who remained single.

The non-depressed experienced a smaller change in their psychological well-being if they got married.

Results from the study confirmed that depressed people report less marital happiness and more marital conflict but being married enhanced their mood.