ABSTRACT
Intimate relationships play a central role in people's lives and well-being. Indeed, there is extensive evidence demonstrating bidirectional associations between the quality of relationships and psychopathology. This chapter provides an overview of the literature on the link between psychopathology and intimate relationships, as well as the couple-based interventions that exist to treat such comorbidity. Not all individuals who report discord exhibit mental health problems. As such, understanding mechanisms that underlie the link between discord and psychopathology may help identify who is at the greatest risk for co-occurring relationship and mental health problems. Disorder-specific interventions focus on creating changes to the relationship, but only in domains central to the disorder. The therapist helps the client identify ways the relationship could be altered to encourage the changes the client needs to make. There is growing evidence that couple therapy is efficacious at treating both discord and depression when they exist together among both mild and severely distressed couples.
