Couples Therapy Outcome Research

SUMMARY

This article reviews the literature on outcome research of couples and marital therapy, and considers in detail three studies which investigate psychodynamic (affective and insight oriented) marital therapy. Two of these investigations compare behavioral to psychodynamic marital therapy and conclude that both methods arc effective at post-treatment and short-term (six month) follow-up. One four year follow-up study found significantly greater deterioration among those couples treated with behavioral therapy. It is concluded that more research and replication is necessary and can be done by practitioners using case studies and single-system design.