'Smug marrieds' can live longer - unless things turn sour, that is

BEING in a long-term, committed relationship is good for your mental and physical health - and it gets better the longer it lasts, researchers claim.

The so-called "smug marrieds" may have good reason to feel pleased with themselves, according to experts writing in the Student British Medical Journal.

However, not all relationships are good for you, as single people enjoy better mental health than those in a strained coupling.

In an editorial for the journal, David Gallacher and John Gallacher from Cardiff University said that on average married people lived longer.

In one large study covering seven European countries, death rates in married people were 10 to 15 per cent lower than the population as a whole, leading the authors to conclude that "on balance, it probably is worth making the effort".

They said that women in committed relationships had better mental health, while men in committed relationships had better physical health.

"The physical health premium for men is likely to be caused by their partner's positive influence on lifestyle," the authors said. "The mental health bonus for women may be due to a greater emphasis on the importance of the relationship in women."

But the journey of true love does not always run smoothly, they admitted, pointing to evidence that relationships in adolescence are associated with increased depressive symptoms.

The researchers said: "Difficult relationships in both the short and long term are consistently shown to have a negative impact on mental health, and the ending of a strained relationship brings mental health benefits."

They pointed out that being single was linked to better mental health than being in a strained relationship. The authors also confirmed that breaking up is hard to do.

"Leaving a relationship is distressing, possibly more so for women, although this effect is made less severe for women because they have more supportive social networks," they said.

The researchers concluded that while relationship failures can harm health, this was not a reason to avoid them.

"Exclusive and supportive relationships confer substantial mental and physical health benefits that grow over time," they said.

"Although failure of a relationship can harm health, this is an argument for avoiding a bad relationship rather than not getting into a relationship at all."

Simon Lawton Smith, from the Mental Health Foundation, said its report - The Lonely Society - had demonstrated that strong, close relationships such as a successful marriage were good for people's physical and mental health.

"Love is known to promote health, strengthening the immune system and cardiovascular function, and helps us to recover more quickly from illness," Mr Smith said.