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While depression communication in romantic relationships has been heavily studied in psychologicalbased research, there is a lack of research grounded in communication theory. By using Relational Dialectics Theory (RDT) as a framework, communicative tensions were explored within relationships where one partner suffered from depression. Through eleven semi-structured interviews with both depressed and non-depressed individuals in a relationship, two major dialectical tensions emerged. Findings suggested that couples with a depressed partner faced unique and challenging tensions including involvement/distance and openness/closedness. Implications, limitations, and future research directions are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]