Couple-based interventions for psychopathology

Relationship functioning and psychopathology are strongly associated with one another. In this article we provide a selective review of the literature on relationship discord and the presence, incidence and individual-based treatment of psychiatric disorders. We then present a model for conceptualizing couple-based interventions with couples in which one partner has a psychiatric disorder, distinguishing between partner-assisted interventions, disorder-specific interventions and couple therapy interventions. Finally, we provide examples of how to employ these interventions with several psychiatric disorders (obsessive-compulsive disorder, anorexia nervosa and depression) and selectively review the efficacy of couple-based interventions in the treatment of psychopathology.