ABSTRACT
The close relationships of depressed persons are particularly likely to be disrupted, and depressed persons often are acutely aware of the impact of relationship difficulties on their moods. In this chapter, we focus on the link between marital discord and depression because marriage is a relationship that often remains intact despite high levels of dissatisfaction among depressed persons (Whisman, Sheldon, & Goering, 2000). This makes it a potentially valuable point of intervention for therapeutic activity. Accordingly, we begin by highlighting issues concerning direction of causality and specific interpersonal processes that might be particularly consequential in linking marital problems and depression. We then examine an intermediatelevel theory that helps to organize much of the theoretical and empirical literature, stress generation theory (Hammen, 1991). Next, we turn to marital therapy for depression, reviewing the literature on efficacy of behavioral marital therapy and similar communication training approaches in the treatment of depression. Finally, we discuss alternative formats for marital therapy with depressed clients that have been proposed and conclude with a brief discussion of potential future directions in the use of marital therapy in the treatment of depression and depressive symptomatology.
