Marital therapy and spouse involvement in the treatment of depression, agoraphobia, and alcoholism

Abstract

This article examines the literature on marital therapy and spouse involvement as treatments for major psychopathology. The focus is on three disorders that have attracted a sufficient number of empirical findings: depression, agoraphobia, and alcoholism. For each of these disorders, we first examine the relation between marital dynamics and the disorder and next discuss empirical efforts to evaluate the impact of marital therapy or spouse involvement on the disorder. In addition, we summarize trends and suggest methodological refinements for future research.