The British Journal of Psychiatry 150: 380-386 (1987)
© 1987 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Influence of husbands on the outcome of their agoraphobic wives' therapy

K Oatley and D Hodgson
Department of Psychology, University of Glasgow.

Of 30 agoraphobic married women undertaking home-based behaviour therapy, 15 each had a female friend as co-therapist and 15 had their own husband as co-therapist. At 12 months follow-up, women spent a mean of approximately 40 minutes a day more outside the home alone than at baseline. Women assisted by female friends made somewhat more behavioural gains than those assisted by husbands. Women in both groups whose husbands had been more depressed 2 months after the beginning of therapy did less well at 6 months. Husbands who become more depressed may retard their wives' progress in therapy, but the effect was small, and was outweighed by other considerations.