Grief, Bereavement, and Coping with Loss: Treatment of Grief
Normal grief may not need to be treated.
Most bereaved people work through grief and recover within the first six months to two years. Researchers are studying whether bereaved people experiencing normal grief would be helped by formal treatment. They are also studying whether treatment might prevent complicated grief in people who are likely to have it (see below). For people who have serious grief reactions or symptoms of distress, treatment may be helpful.
Complicated grief may be treated with different types of psychotherapy (talk therapy).
Researchers are studying the treatment of mental, emotional, social, and behavioral symptoms of grief. Treatment methods include discussion, listening, and counseling.
Complicated grief treatment (CGT) is a type of grief therapy that was helpful in a clinical trial.
Complicated grief treatment (CGT) has three phases:
- The first phase includes talking about the loss and setting goals toward recovery. The bereaved are taught to work on these two things.
- The second phase includes coping with the loss by retelling the story of the death. This helps bereaved people who try not to think about their loss.
- The last phase looks at progress that has been made toward recovery and helps the bereaved make future plans. The bereaved's feelings about ending the sessions are also discussed.
In a clinical trial of patients with complicated grief, CGT was compared to interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT). IPT is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on the person's relationships with others and is helpful in treating depression. In patients with complicated grief, the CGT was more helpful than IPT.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for complicated grief was helpful in a clinical trial.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) works with the way a person's thoughts and behaviors are connected. CBT helps the patient learn skills that change attitudes and behaviors by replacing negative thoughts and changing the rewards of certain behaviors.
A clinical trial compared CBT to counseling for complicated grief. Results showed that patients treated with CBT had more improvement in symptoms and general mental distress than those in the counseling group.
Depression related to grief is sometimes treated with prescription drugs.
There is no standard drug therapy for depression that occurs with grief. Some health care professionals think depression is a normal part of grief and doesn't need to be treated. Whether to treat grief-related depression with drugs is up to the patient and the health care professional to decide.
Clinical trials of antidepressants for depression related to grief have found that the drugs can help relieve depression. However, they give less relief and take longer to work than they do when used for depression that is not related to grief.
Link opens in a new windowGrief, Bereavement, and Coping with Loss (PDQ®)—Patient Version was originally published by the National Cancer Institute.
U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI). (Updated 2013, March 6). Treatment of grief. In Grief, bereavement, and coping with loss (PDQ®)—Patient version. Retrieved April 7, 2021, from https://www.cancer.gov