Does the DSM-5 grief disorder apply to owners of deceased pets? A psychometric study of impairment during pet loss.

This study aimed to validate the DSM-5 grief disorder construct to owners of deceased pets using a sample of 395 adults who were impaired during bereavement. Confirmatory factor analyzes indicated that the grief symptoms cohered into the symptom clusters proposed by the DSM-5, which were driven by a higher-order factor and were equivalent across gender. Grief disordered individuals exhibited more depression, loneliness, sleep difficulties, negative religious coping, and alcohol/drug coping compared to the rest of the sample. These findings support the application of the DSM-5 model of grief to owners of deceased pets.