The intrafamilial transmission of rheumatoid arthritis. VII. Why do wives with rheumatoid arthritis have husbands with peptic ulcer?

SOME years ago the senior author publicly expressed [l] the hypothesis that women with rheumatoid arthritis should, with undue frequency, be married to men with peptic ulcers. The reason given for this speculation was that it seemed likely that the hostility in these marriages [2, 31 would leave unmet the husbands’ needs for emotional support and the wives’ needs for ego support. When in the course of the study of the intrafamilial transmission of rheumatoid arthritis it became apparent that this prediction of association of rheumatoid arthritis and peptic ulcers across the marriage would be supported, it was decided to devote most of the third interview to those variables relevant to this hypothesis.