Joined wife at home, beset by recurrent depression (7)
I believe the answer is:
twinned
'joined' is the definition.
(twinning is a kind of joining)
'wife at home beset by recurrent depression' is the wordplay.
'wife' becomes 'w' (abbreviation).
'at home' becomes 'in' ('I'm in' can mean 'I'm at home').
'beset by' means one lot of letters goes inside another ('beset' could historically mean 'cover').
'recurrent' says the letters should be written backwards (recurrent can mean turning back).
'depression' becomes 'dent' (dent is a kind of depression).
'dent' backwards is 'tned'.
'w'+'in'='win'
'win' put inside 'tned' is 'TWINNED'.
(Other definitions for twinned that I've seen before include "Some towns are" , "Similarly connected" , "Enjoying a link" , "Coupled together" , "(Of town) linked to another overseas" .)