ARQ Centre of Expertise for Traumatic Grief

Background: Recognition that the loss of a loved one may result in prolonged grief disorder (PGD) has gained broad attention recently. PGD may disturb daily functioning to such a degree that mental health treatment is required. Because PGD symptoms often resemble symptoms of common mental disorders (CMD) such as anxiety, depressive, and post-traumatic stress disorder, clinicians may not consider a PGD diagnosis. Moreover, cultural varieties in expression of PGD may complicate recognition.

Background: Previous research has provided insight into the grief of suicide survivors, but little is known about grief following physician-assisted dying (PAD), and no prior study specifically focused on grief following PAD due to a mental disorder. The current study aims to increase insight into experiences preceding PAD or suicide of a loved one due to a mental disorder and their impact on mental health symptoms.

Background

There is a lack of existing research on grief following the intentional death of people suffering from a mental disorder. Our study aims to provide insight into grief experiences and social reactions of bereaved persons who lost their life partners, who were suffering from a mental disorder, to physician-assisted dying (PAD) or suicide.

Methods

The field of bereavement research and care is at a tipping point. The introduction of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) has ignited clinical interest in this new disorder, along with debate over challenges in validating and implementing these new criteria. At

BACKGROUND
The capacity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to occur with delayed onset has been documented in several systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Neurobiological models of PTSD may provide insight into the mechanisms underlying the progressive increase in PTSD symptoms over time as well as into occasional occurrences of long-delayed PTSD with few prodromal symptoms. 

AIM
To obtain an overview of key concepts explaining and types of evidence supporting neurobiological underpinnings of delayed PTSD. 

The loss of a loved one causes the world and the place of the bereaved survivor in it to change irreversibly. A key aspect of the grieving process is the integration of the loss in the bereaved survivor’s life story, identity change, and a new future orientation through meaning attribution. Meaning attribution can have favourable or unfavourable effects on the grieving process and hence determines the extent to which a loss disrupts the bereaved survivor’s functioning.

Objective
to examine the hypothesis that PTSD with delayed expression in some cases occur without subthreshold PTSD symptoms above background levels bridging the gap between the traumatic exposure(s) and the clinical diagnosis.

Traumatic events such as disasters, accidents, war, or criminal violence are often accompanied by the loss of loved ones. Traumatic grief following the loss of loved ones due to violent circumstances may occur in people surviving cultural conflicts as well as profession related risks. Traumatic grief can be conceptualized as a combination of traumatic distress and separation distress following an unnatural, violent loss.

ABSTRACT

Background: Traumatic events can be related to severe transgressions or violations of moral boundaries. Moral injury (MI) has been described as ‘the lasting psychological, biological, spiritual, behavioral and social impact of perpetrating, failing to prevent, or bearing witness to acts that transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations.’ These events can provoke emotions such as remorse, guilt and shame, and affects someone’s self-image and identity.

Background: Displaced victims of interpersonal violence, such as refugees, asylum seekers, and victims of sexual exploitation, are growing in numbers and are often suffering from a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). At the same time, these victims are known to benefit less from trauma-focused therapy (TFT) and to be less compliant to treatment. The objective of this paper is to describe the rationale and research protocol of an ongoing trial that aims to evaluate different variables that might influence the feasibility of TFT for the study population.