Distrubed grief: Prolonged grief disorder and persistent complex bereavement disorder

Year Published:

Abstract

Each individual’s grief process is unique. The concept of stages of grief occurring in a specific order is a popular, yet inadequate representation of what grieving people go through.1 Traditional models developed to understand grief therefore often unhelpfully suggest that all bereaved individual do, and even should, follow the same process towards recovery from loss. The newer grief task model2 offers a more neutral framework to describe normal and disturbed grief. The model proposes that normal grief is the successful achievement of certain “grief tasks,” whereas complications in managing these tasks might indicate disturbed grief. There is no recommended or specific order in which to achieve these tasks. Grief tasks include: to accept the reality of the loss; to process the associated pain; to adjust to a world without the deceased; and to find an enduring connection with the deceased in the midst of embarking on a new life. The model also describes challenges faced following losses other than bereavement.

Citation

Relevant Evidence Summaries

The evidence was reviewed and included in the following summaries: 

What can help refugees process traumatic grief?

There is limited strong evidence on interventions that specifically target traumatic grief. –  Prolonged and traumatic grief are usually closely associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and therefore many interventions targeted PTSD with grief symptoms as an auxiliary diagnosis –  There appear to be some differences in interventions that target grief as a result of…

About this study

AGE: Multiple Age Groups

DIRECTION OF EVIDENCE: No evidence about impact

FULL TEXT AVAILABILITY: Paid

HOST COUNTRY: Netherlands

HOST COUNTRY INCOME: High

OUTCOME AREA: Mental Health

OUTCOME: PCBD

POPULATION: Refugees

REGION OF ORIGIN OF PARTICIPANT(S): Multiple Regions

STRENGTH OF EVIDENCE: Suggestive

TYPE OF STUDY: Suggestive evidence

YEAR PUBLISHED: 2017

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