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.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 2 Jun 2005
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.