Psychological toxicity of bereavement: Six months after the event

Abstract

Bereavement is often a highly distressing experience that can have serious consequences. Therefore, it is important for health professionals to better understand the nature of this distress and trauma. However, further research is needed in this area, for there are few controlled bereavement studies that have used standardised measures of the impact of bereavement. Furthermore, there is a need for further controlled and systematic Australian research in this area, as data have consistently been reported from North America. In order to obtain a better understanding of the effects of bereavement, 55 persons were assessed on a number of psychological measures 2 weeks and 6 months after their spouse had died. They were compared on these measures to a control group matched for age, sex, marital status, and race. The results revealed significantly elevated prevalence of psychological disturbance among the bereaved 2 weeks and 6 months after the loss. Within the bereaved group, those who were disturbed were more likely to be of a lower socioeconomic status, and to have a previous history of psychological disturbance. This study contributes to our knowledge concerning the nature of bereavement in Australia, and implications for the utility of crisis intervention with selected bereaved individuals are explored.