The effect of living alone on bereavement symptoms.

The author reports on a study of widows and widowers who were followed for one year after the deaths of their spouses. The study shows that bereavement itself rather than the effects of living alone influences the occurrence of depressive symptoms in widows and widowers at one month. The data gathered also support the idea that younger people who have lost a spouse tend to show more physical depressive symptoms and to require hospitalization more often than either matched married controls or older widows and widowers at one year.