'Depressed get more out of marriage'

"If you start out happy, you don't have so far to go," said Ohio State University Professor Kristi Williams.

"Marriage may give depressed people a greater sense that they matter to someone, while people who aren't depressed prior to marriage may have always thought that way," she said.

The study was to be presented Sunday in Montreal at the American Sociological Association annual meeting.

The study used data collected by the US National Survey of Families and Households, which interviewed 3,066 persons in 1987-1988 and again in 1993-1994 -- before and after five years of marriage.