Depression is a common condition that does not spare any age, gender and group. Marriage, an important life event, that too in early age in relation to this disorder, is the focus of this study.

To assess married male and female cases with age< 18 years for depressive disorder.

This study was conducted in psychiatric out-patients at Neuro-spinal & medical Institute, Karachi. 564 cases below 18 years consulted. Among them 44 married cases fulfilling the including criteria were selected. They were assessed on semi-structured proforma. Criteria of ICD-10 were applied for diagnostic purpose. Ethical issues were taken care off. Results were analyzed through SPSS.

Forty four cases (7.8%) were married among total 564 cases < 18 years. Among them 15 (34%) were males and 29 (66%) were females. Their age ranged between 9-< 18 years with mean ages ± SD was 16.1 ± 1.8 years. Most of the females (51.7%) were illiterate while 46.7% of the males were students of primary classes. Most were from joint families with family members of up to 18 members. According to ICD-10, 33.3% of the males and 62.1% of the females were suffering from depressive disorder.

Early marriage is still prevalent (7.8%) among of children and adolescents in this part of the world. Depressive disorder was almost double among females below 18 years.