Highlights
- •This manuscript illustrates that grieving individuals can be recruited, assigned, and retained in a peer support model intended to prevent complications of grieving in the first year post-loss.
This feasibility and acceptance pilot study for preventing complications of bereavement
within the first year post loss recruited 20 adult grievers within 9 months of becoming
bereft and assigned consenting subjects to peer supporters trained by a non-profit
bereavement support organization for weekly or bi-weekly telephone-based peer support
until month 13 post-loss. Subjects who met DSM-5 criteria for major depressive disorder
or showed an Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG) score exceeding 19, 6 months or
more post loss, were assigned to 12 to 16 weeks of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT)
with an experienced therapist. Eight and six subjects completed the protocol assigned
to peer support and IPT, respectively, with pre/post Patient Health Questionnaire-9
scores of 5.38 (2.45) versus 3.25 (4.13) (p = 0.266) and 16.67 (7.17) versus 8.40
(5.73) (p =0.063); and pre/post ICG scores of 12.50 (4.72) versus 5.00 (2.51) (p = 0.016)
and 35.17 (5.12) versus 8.4 (5.73) (p = 0.063). Implications of this two-tiered model
of early intervention for preventing complications of grief are discussed.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 25, 2017
Accepted:
May 18,
2017
Received in revised form:
May 16,
2017
Received:
February 7,
2017
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
