So, maybe it isn't better to have loved and lost...

This study suggests that the emotional and physical trauma of divorce lasts a lifetime (in general). However, I wonder what the effects are in other countries, where people don't marry so young as we do here in the US, or even at all. Nor do they take into account long-term partnerships. Also, they don't provide a breakdown of the length of marriage before divorce - I think that could bias the sample.

I went to the original article, found here, and they do reference some previous work that looks at the effects of the longevity of marriage on health:

"Dupre and Meadows (2007) examine the relationship between marital histories and the incidence of chronic disease. Their results suggest the importance of time spent married; age related increases in disease are slowed by longer marital durations. Brockmann and Klein (2004) examine the effects of time in marital states on risk of death. They find that the health benefits of marriage accumulate, while the negative health consequences of being single, divorced, or widowed attenuate over time. They find no evidence that these effects differ by marriage order. Zhang and Hayward (2006) assess the relationship between the marital life course and the prevalence and incidence of cardiovascular diseases at older ages. They find that both men and women who have experienced a marital loss have a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease and that ever-divorced or widowed women, but not men, show a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease. Duration of marriage is positively related to incidence of cardiovascular disease for both genders, a result that is largely explained by health behaviors and co-morbidities. And Barrett (2000) examines the link between marital histories and mental health in a local sample. She finds that currently married persons who were ever divorced or widowed report worse mental health than continuously married persons; persons who are currently divorced or widowed for the second time show worse mental health than those disrupted for the first time."