Time for dyadic treatments for low-level partner aggression.

J Clin Psychiatry 2015;76(6):e824–e825 (doi:10.4088/JCP.14com09582). © Copyright 2015 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc. T partner violence field has become stagnant with the common use of “power and control” interventions for men in relationships characterized by intimate partner aggression (IPV), though such interventions have received only marginal support.1 Thus, it is time to admit that “one size does not fit all” in the treatment of partner abuse2 and that there are alternatives. Interventions for low-level physical aggression and psychological aggression against partners can be successfully implemented in diverse settings with relationship dyads as well explicated in this treatment evaluation with veterans and their partners (see Hayes et al, this issue3). It is this very group—dyads with low levels of physical aggression and significant psychological aggression—that seems most appropriate to target at this stage of intervention development. With research designs and random assignment to interventions, the field will be able to meet standards that will enable researchers to document an intervention that meets American Psychological Association standards for empirically supported treatments.4 Further, a number of empirical evaluations of dyadic interventions have shown that psychological and physical aggression can be reduced in couples who were selected so that the wife was not injured and was unafraid to be in a therapeutic situation with her partner.5 Additionally, some such dyadic interventions do not directly target the IPV. Let us now address these above points in more detail.