Maja O'Connor1, Mathias Lasgaard2, Lene Larsen3, Maja Johannsen4, Marie Lundorff4, Ingeborg Farver-Vestergaard4, Paul A Boelen5. 1. Unit for Bereavement Research, Department of Psychology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; The Danish National Center for Grief, Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: maja@psy.au.dk. 2. DEFACTUM, Central Denmark Region, Aarhus, Denmark. 3. The Danish National Center for Grief, Copenhagen, Denmark. 4. Unit for Bereavement Research, Department of Psychology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. 5. Department of Clinical Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Arq Psychotrauma Expert Group, Diemen, the Netherlands.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: A distinct grief-specific disorder is included in the ICD-11. Lack of clarity remains regarding whether different proposed diagnostic criteria capture similar or different diagnostic entities. Our aim was to examine the specificity of four proposed diagnostic criteria-sets for pathological grief in a population-based sample. METHODS: Participants were 206 conjugally bereaved elderly Danes (59% female; mean age = 72.5 years, SD = 4.2; range 65-81) who completed self-report questionnaires six months post-loss. The main measure was the Danish version of Inventory of Complicated Grief-Revised. RESULTS: Results indicate substantial agreement between Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD), Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder (PCBD) and ICD-11-PGD (kappa's = 0.69-0.84), which found 6-9% of cases tested positive for pathological grief. Complicated Grief (CG) was partly in agreement with the three other symptom-diagnostic tests (kappa's = 0.13-0.20), and the prevalence-rate of pathological grief was 48%. LIMITATIONS: The low response-rate of 39%. The selective inclusion of data ≥6 months post-loss prevents a comparison of acute and prolonged grief reactions. Using self-reported data, not diagnostic interviews, challenges the validity of our findings. Using a sample of elderly people may limit the generalizability of our results to other age groups. CONCLUSION: We suggest that PGD, PCBD and ICD-11-PGD may be more discriminative in identifying a specific grief-related psychopathology, while CG may identify a broader set of grief reactions.
BACKGROUND: A distinct grief-specific disorder is included in the ICD-11. Lack of clarity remains regarding whether different proposed diagnostic criteria capture similar or different diagnostic entities. Our aim was to examine the specificity of four proposed diagnostic criteria-sets for pathological grief in a population-based sample. METHODS:Participants were 206 conjugally bereaved elderly Danes (59% female; mean age = 72.5 years, SD = 4.2; range 65-81) who completed self-report questionnaires six months post-loss. The main measure was the Danish version of Inventory of Complicated Grief-Revised. RESULTS: Results indicate substantial agreement between Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD), Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder (PCBD) and ICD-11-PGD (kappa's = 0.69-0.84), which found 6-9% of cases tested positive for pathological grief. Complicated Grief (CG) was partly in agreement with the three other symptom-diagnostic tests (kappa's = 0.13-0.20), and the prevalence-rate of pathological grief was 48%. LIMITATIONS: The low response-rate of 39%. The selective inclusion of data ≥6 months post-loss prevents a comparison of acute and prolonged grief reactions. Using self-reported data, not diagnostic interviews, challenges the validity of our findings. Using a sample of elderly people may limit the generalizability of our results to other age groups. CONCLUSION: We suggest that PGD, PCBD and ICD-11-PGD may be more discriminative in identifying a specific grief-related psychopathology, while CG may identify a broader set of grief reactions.
Authors: Nicole J LeBlanc; Emma R Toner; Emily B O'Day; Cynthia W Moore; Luana Marques; Donald J Robinaugh; Richard J McNally Journal: J Affect Disord Date: 2019-12-02 Impact factor: 4.839
Authors: Maja O'Connor; Lene Larsen; Biretha V Joensen; Paul A Boelen; Fiona Maccallum; Katrine Komischke-Konnerup; Richard A Bryant Journal: Front Psychol Date: 2020-05-28