Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by war trauma experience has effects on every aspect veterans’ lives. It particularly reflects partnership relations and marital quality as well as psychic health of their wives causing disturbances. Aim: To establish the quality of partnership relations of couples suffering from PTSD, as well as to see whether spouses of diseased veterans have symptoms of Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder, burnout symptoms and other nonspecific mental symptoms; and to what extent is that affected by the socio-demographic factors, level of personal traumatization and level of personal traumatization of their partners. Participants and method: Experimental group consisted of 154 veterans who were being treated at the Clinical Hospital Mostar for PTSD caused by war psychotrauma, and their wives/partners. Control group consisted of 77 war veterans without PTSD, and their wives. Participants in the control group were contacted through veterans’ associations by snowballing method. The following instruments were used in the research: General Demographic Questionnaire, Harvard trauma questionnaire – Bosnia and Herzegovina version, SCL-90 questionnaire, MINI, PCL Questionnaire, Quality of Life Questionnaire (MANSA), Spanier’s Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Partnership Burnout Questionnaire, Caretaker Burden Questionnaire and Permanent personality change questionnaire. Results: The quality of partnership relation of the PTSD veterans’ wives is lesser than wives of veterans without PTSD. In situations when wife also suffers from PTSD the marriage quality is even lesser than in situation where only the veteran has PTSD. PTSD veterans’ wives also have statistically higher scores on all variables of PCL Questionnaire (number and intensity of posttraumatic symptoms and total score). Also, significantly more of them meets the criteria for diagnosis of Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder (STSD) (75.2%:19.5%) in comparison with the wives of veterans without PTSD (χ²=62.38; ss=1; p < 0.001). These participants reach significantly higher results also on all subscales of Caretaker Burden Questionnaire, Partnership Burnout Questionnaire and Permanent personality change questionnaire, and their general psychological distress is higher. Along with high secondary traumatization, the wives of PTSD veterans, in comparison to wives of veterans without PTSD, significantly more often have one of accompanying anxious and affective mental disorders, or both, and are highly suicidal. Mental symptoms in women whose spouses have PTSD are best predicted on the basis of their traumatization, and in small part on the basis of socio-demographic indicators and level of partners’ traumatization. Conclusion: Veterans’ PTSD is connected with the quality of partners’ relations and secondary traumatization, subjective and objective perception of the caretaker burden, burnout in partnership relations and general psychological distress of their wives.