Modified psychotherapy eases severe grief
So-called ‘complicated’ grief following the death of a loved one and lasting 6 months or longer, can be relieved more effectively with interpersonal therapy combined with a focus on treating the loss than with interpersonal psychotherapy alone, according to a report in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
Symptoms of complicated grief are not the same as those of major depression or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Dr. Katherine Shear told Reuters Health.
“Complicated grief has specific symptoms,” she noted, which include “a sense of disbelief, anger and bitterness about the death, episodic pangs of painful emotion and very prominent longing for the person that died, with recurrent images of the death itself and avoidance behavior.”
Symptoms can persist for years, she added. The predominant emotion is sadness, rather than the fear and anxiety that usually accompany PTSD.
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“Modified psychotherapy eases severe grief”
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 2 Jun 2005
