Question
What is prolonged grief disorder?
Answer
Previously in the DSM-5, we had something called complicated grief disorder that was listed under conditions not further specified. And so this was a period where people were studying this. Does it make sense to put this as a mental health category? And the concern was to refrain from unwarranted diagnosis and not to pathologize grief. That was, on one side, not pathologizing grief, and on the other side, was getting people treatment and the help they needed, which would be easier if it could be considered a diagnosis. So over that period of time, from 2013 to 2019, they decided to put it in as a regular category.
Prolonged grief includes people who continue to grieve one year after a loss. It is expected to apply to about 4% of bereaved people. Although we do not know because it is so early in the trajectory. The definition of prolonged grief disorder, which is the first two key items in the DSM-5-TR, is it is considered an intense yearning or longing for the deceased person. And often, that involves intense sorrow and emotional pain. Secondly, it is a preoccupation with the thoughts or memories of the deceased. In children and adolescents, this preoccupation may focus on the circumstances of the death.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the webinar, When We Can't Say Goodbye: Coping with Sudden or Unexpected Death, presented by Holly Nelson-Becker, PhD, MSW, LCSW, ACSW
