In this thesis we investigate the interplay between dissipation and driving in nonlinear quantum systems for a special setup: a flux qubit read out by a DC-SQUID - a nonlinear quantum oscillator. The latter is embedded in a harmonic bath, thereby mediating dissipation to the qubit. Two different approaches are elaborated: First we consider a composite qubit-SQUID system and add the bath afterwards. We derive analytical expressions for its eigenstates beyond rotating wave approximation (RWA), by

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... applying Van Vleck perturbation theory (VVPT) in the qubit-oscillator coupling. The second approach is an effective bath approach based on a mapping procedure, where SQUID and bath form an effective bath seen by the qubit. Here the qubit dynamics is obtained by applying standard procedures established for the spin-boson problem. This approach requires the knowledge of the steady-state response of the dissipative Duffing oscillator, which is studied within a resonant and an off-resonant approach: The first is applicable near and at an N-photon resonance using VVPT beyond a RWA. The second is based on the exact Floquet states of the nonlinear driven oscillator. The dissipative qubit dynamics is described analytically for weak system-bath coupling and agrees well for both approaches. We derive the effect of the nonlinearity on the qubit dynamics, on the Bloch-Siegert shift and on the vacuum Rabi splitting.