Evaluation of medical reasons in the divorce cases decided by bakirköy family courts

Introduction and Aim: Human is a social being and the relationships he establishes with other individuals in society comprise an important part of his life. "Family", one of the basic concepts in society, is the first and most important social structure in which a person experiences sharing and living together. In the current study, it is aimed to elucidate the reasons leading to the divorce process, to determine the points that health professionals working in this field should consider about the process, to better understand the divorce decision-making experiences of individuals, and to raise awareness about the subject through assessing the sociodemographic and socioeconomic status of individuals who applied for divorce, as well as their histories of physical and mental illness. Method: The current study was carried out with the data retrospectively obtained by the contentious divorce case files. In the present study, the contentious divorce files, whose reasoned decisions were announced by Bakırköy Family Courts between 2018-2020, were searched through UYAP using keywords, eventually 201 case files were included in the study. The retrospective data were analyzed without recording personal data that could be used for identification, such as case file numbers, identities, addresses and contact details of the parties to the case. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 22.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Initially, descriptive statistics were made. Chi-Square test, Student-t test, Mann-Whitney-U test, Kruskal-Wallis test were applied. Findings: When the case files were examined; It was determined that 162 (80.8%) of the parties who started to divorce process were women, the average age of divorce was 37.7 for men and 34 for women, and the average marriage period was 10 years. In the case files, where one of the grounds for divorce was stated to be "sexual problems", it is determined thar the average duration of marriage was 8.23, and it was the shortest marriage period compared to other grounds. The most cited medical reasons for divorce were alcohol/substance abuse (51%), other psychiatric disorders (15%), and sexual problems (9%). Discussion and Conclusion: "Divorce" is a process that has lasting effects on both spouses and children, and that needs to be defined as a social entity, analyzed multidimensionally, and needs policies developed for and a multidisciplinary approach. When the medical reasons for divorce investigated in the study, it was found that alcohol/substance addiction was shown as the reason for divorce at a significant frequency (n:115). It was observed in 95 case files (44.3%) that a medical expert report was requested by the court, and the medical reasons that were considered to be of a nature and degree to prevent the continuation of the marriage were psychiatric reasons.