Couple therapy for depression in a naturalistic setting in Finland: a 2-year randomized trial

The dialogical and narrative processes in couple therapy (CT) for depressions project was conducted to develop therapy for depression and to investigate the effectiveness of CT in everyday clinical practice; thus aiming at high external validity. Patients with moderate or major depression were randomized to a CT group (n = 29) and a control group (n = 22). The CT group needed significantly fewer therapy sessions. There were significant differences in favour of the CT group in terms of general mental health (symptom check list), Hamilton depression rating scale, global assessment of functioning and decreasing alcohol use. As regards depressive symptoms using the Beck depression inventory, 79 per cent of the research group and 70 per cent of the control group showed a clinically significant improvement. CT may be the method of choice in moderate and severe depression if agreement is reached with the couple concerning the form of therapy.