Preparation for Child Psych PRITE and Boards
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Introduction

Definitions

Grief is the psychological and emotional reaction to a significant loss, not limited to death. A victim of an accident can experience grief over a loss of a limb, an elderly person can grieve inability to perform a previously mastered skill.

Bereavementrefers specifically to grief precipitated by death of someone close. Mourning is the social expression of bereavement or grief, often formalized by custom or religion. Complicated grief, previously referred to as traumatic grief, is typically not diagnosed until at least 6 months have passed after the loss. It is a distressing condition in which common symptoms include disbelief about the death, anger and bitterness, pangs of painful emotions with intense yearning for the deceased, preoccupation with thoughts of the deceased, and avoidance of reminders of the loss. (Shear)

Shear K, Frank E, Houck PR, Reynolds CF 3rd. Treatment of complicated grief: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2005;293:2601-2608.