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Depressive symptoms during bereavement appear similar to depression
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Spousal bereavement among older couples may increase depressive symptoms, thereby leading to an incorrect diagnosis of depression, according to data published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
These findings suggest that treating older patients who have lost a loved one requires various strategies, according to researchers.
Eiko I. Fried
Eiko I. Fried, PhD, faculty of psychology and educational sciences at KU Leuven, University of Leuven in Belgium, and colleagues studied 515 couples from the Changing Lives of Older Couples study; compared their depressive symptoms among widows and widowers (n = 241) and a still-married control group (n = 274).
“First, we found that spousal loss causes a very small number of specific depression symptoms, the most important of which was loneliness. Second, we observed that these few initial depression symptoms in turn trigger a specific network of subsequent depression symptoms,” Fried said in a press release.
The implications for the prevention and intervention of elderly bereavement may include treatment that specifically targets these symptoms to prevent the activation of further mental illness, Fried said in the release.
The researchers also reported that depressive symptoms and underlying causal mechanisms may vary across different life events; and may lead to an increased likelihood for the development of depression.
Of concern, the DSM-5 no longer clarifies a distinction between depression and bereavement in its latest version, according to the researchers.
“This has been a topic of huge debate, and we fear that in many people who exhibit a normal grief response after losing their partner, normal sadness may be misdiagnosed as pathological depression,” Fried said in the release. – by Samantha Costa
Disclosure: Fried reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.