The course of dyadic adjustment and depressive symptoms during and after couples therapy: a prospective follow-up study of inpatient treatment

Abstract

A clinical sample of adult patients suffering from relational distress and concurrent psychiatric symptoms was followed from admission, through residential couple therapy, to 1-year follow-up. At follow-up, 9.8% were separated. The remaining couples showed significant improvement in dyadic adjustment at posttreatment. However, at 1-year follow-up, a subgroup of 25% of the positive treatment responders had deteriorated to below their admission levels of dyadic adjustment. Contrary to expectation, the deteriorated group had showed significantly less distress both in depressive symptoms and in one early maladaptive schema domain-Impaired Autonomy-at admission, when compared with the rest of the sample, which suggests the need for further research and possible replication in this area.