Prevention in mental health: a controlled study.

The authors conducted a controlled study in which families who had experienced the sudden death of a family member were given crisis intervention services and compared at follow-up with two untreated control groups. Results did not support the hypothesis that such services decrease the risk of psychiatric illness, disturbed family functioning, or increased social cost to the families. The authors suggest that environmental and social systems factors and individual variables are powerful predictors of outcome in bereavement.