SynthesisThe Psychiatric quarterly2008
Efficacy of couple therapy as a treatment for depression: a meta-analysis.
Synthesis in The Psychiatric quarterly, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 169 citations in OpenAlex.
- Findings from a couple-based open trial for adult anorexia nervosa.Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43) · 2017Trial
- Dyadic discord at baseline is associated with lack of remission in the acute treatment of chronic depression.Psychological medicine · 2010Trial
- Maintaining relationship safety while promoting relationship health: Family service referrals among veterans screened for intimate partner violence.Psychological services · 2025Article
- Brief relationship support as a selective suicide prevention intervention: Piloting the Relationship Checkup in veteran couples with relationship and mental health concerns.Suicide & life-threatening behavior · 2023Article
- Sense of Relational Entitlement and Couple Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Couple Negotiation Tactics.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Relationship quality and mental health among sexual and gender minorities.Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43) · 2022Article
- Examining the Correlation Between Depression and Social Behavior on Smartphones Through Usage Metadata: Empirical Study.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2021Article
- The effect of cognitive-behavioral counseling of pregnant women with the presence of a spouse on stress, anxiety, and postpartum depression.Journal of education and health promotion · 2021Article
- A New Social Network Scale for Detecting Depressive Symptoms in Older Japanese Adults.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- A Dyadic Investigation of Relationship Dynamics and Depressive Symptoms in HIV-Affected Couples in Malawi.AIDS and behavior · 2019Article
- The Dynamic Interplay Between Satisfaction With Intimate Relationship Functioning and Daily Mood in Low-Income Outpatients.Family process · 2019Article
- Preliminary development of a neuroimaging paradigm to examine neural correlates of relationship conflict.Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging · 2019Article
- Why Is Social Isolation Among Older Adults Associated with Depressive Symptoms? The Mediating Role of Out-of-Home Physical Activity.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2018Article
- Expressed Emotion and Attributions in Relatives of Patients With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Panic Disorder.The Journal of nervous and mental disease · 2017Article
- A Web-Disseminated Self-Help and Peer Support Program Could Fill Gaps in Mental Health Care: Lessons From a Consumer Survey.JMIR mental health · 2017Article
- Illustrating idiographic methods for translation research: moderation effects, natural clinical experiments, and complex treatment-by-subgroup interactions.Translational behavioral medicine · 2016Article
- Emotion regulation and depressive symptoms: Close relationships as social context and influence.Journal of personality and social psychology · 2015Article
- Multi-family Group Treatment for Veterans with Mood Disorders: A Pilot Study.Couple & family psychology · 2015Article
- Article
- The effects of psychotherapy for adult depression on social support: A meta-analysis.Cognitive therapy and research · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Data from clinical trials of couple therapy for depression have never been subjected to systematic analyses. We performed a meta-analysis of eight controlled trials involving 567 subjects. No difference was found on depressive symptoms between couple therapy and individual psychotherapy. Relationship distress was significantly reduced in the couple therapy group. Too few data are available for comparisons with drug therapy and no treatment. The findings are weakened by small sample sizes, assessments at the end of treatment or short follow-up, unclear sample representativeness, heterogeneity among studies. The mediating role of improvement in quality of couple relationships is not supported by data. However, it has not been adequately tested. Evidence on efficacy of couple therapy as a treatment for depression is inconclusive. The evidence for improvement in couple relationships may favor the choice of couple therapy when relational distress is a major problem.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.