Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder

Losing a loved one is one of the most distressing and, unfortunately, common experiences people face. Most people experiencing normal grief and bereavement have a period of sorrow, numbness, and even guilt and anger. Gradually these feelings ease, and it’s possible to accept loss and move forward.

For some people, feelings of loss are debilitating and don’t improve even after time passes. This is known as complicated grief, sometimes called persistent complex bereavement disorder. In complicated grief, painful emotions are so long lasting and severe that you have trouble recovering from the loss and resuming your own life.

 

Cluster Number:
Wiki Number: PW160
Diagnosis: Complex Bereavement and Complicated Grief Disorders
US Patients: A minority of the bereaved population
World Patients:
Sex Ratio: F
Age Onset: 61+
Brain Area:
Symptoms: Grief and functional impairment last more than 6-12 months; continuous emotional dysregulaton, social isolation & suicidal thoughts
Progression: Non-western cultures appear to retain the grief and difficulties longer than Western cultures.
Causes: conditions prior to the death, major depression, PTSD and sleep disorders, often make it worse. Low income, pessimistic
Medications:
Therapies: CGT-Complicated Grief Therapy-a helpful 16-week therapy session.

Youtube Video: Lost in Loss: A Window into the Grieving Brain

Amazon or Library Book: F**K Death

Click the book to link or order from Amazon.

Support Group: compassionatefriends.org.find-support; 877-969-0010 (It supports families after a child dies; the website has a directory of chapters.)

Other Support Groups: Often religious organizations have support groups for members or the public.

4 CURRENT ARTICLES
FROM PUBMED

The world-wide medical research
reports chosen for each diagnosis 

Clicking each title opens the
PubMed article’s summary-abstract.

  • Optimizing Family Presence through Medical Education
    by Rona Yu on May 10, 2024

    AbstractMany family members are wary of asking whether they can be present in the intensive care unit (ICU) while patients are receiving care. However, the opportunity to be present can be profoundly beneficial, especially to family members as they approach the grieving process. In the long run, this may decrease emotional complications such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex grief. Family presence may also be profoundly important to patients, who may find comfort in the...

  • Living with loss: a cognitive approach to prolonged grief disorder - incorporating complicated, enduring and traumatic grief - ADDENDUM
    by Michael Duffy on June 13, 2023

    The subject of prolonged, complicated and traumatic grief has become more topical as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic. CBT practitioners have been asked to provide effective therapeutic responses for clients with enduring distressing grief reactions. These enduring grief conditions have now been categorised as Prolonged Grief Disorder in the two main mental health classification systems: in the ICD -11 in November 2020 and as a revision to the DSM-5 in 2021. In this paper we draw on our...

  • Validation of a Brief Measure for Complicated Grief Specific to Reproductive Loss
    by Cara Buskmiller on May 22, 2023

    Objective Complicated grief reactions follow some pregnancy outcomes, like miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death, infant death, selective reduction, or termination of pregnancy. Stigma can delay treatment and worsen outcomes. Screening tools such as the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale detect complicated grief poorly, and specific tools for prolonged or complicated grief after a reproductive loss are cumbersome. In this study, a five-item questionnaire to detect complicated grief after...

  • Prolonged grief disorder in ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR: Challenges and controversies
    by Maarten C Eisma on February 7, 2023

    Prolonged grief disorder has recently been added to the International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5, Text Revision. This historical development is often presented as a linear process culminating in the inclusion of valid, clinically relevant prolonged grief disorder criteria in diagnostic handbooks. The present contribution provides an overview of work contradicting this dominant narrative. First, I show that the...