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Grief

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Abstract

Grief is a normal reaction to the loss of someone close. Grief reactions range from intense emotional responses involving sadness, longing, guilt, and anger with significant functional disruption lasting several months to the transitory, situational experience of sadness with little or no functional disruption that endures only for the first few weeks after the loss (e.g., Bonanno and Kaltman, 1999). Normal grief may be accompanied by acute somatic, depressive, and post-traumatic stress symptoms, or no appreciable distress or dysfunction (see Bonanno, 2004; Bonanno and Kaltman, 1999; Bonanno et al., 2002; Coifman et al., 2007; Parker and McNally, 2008). However, when they do occur, symptoms of normal grief typically remit within 6 months of the loss (Prigerson et al., 1997), though individuals may report intense sadness when reminded of their loss throughout their lifetime.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Nevada-Reno, Mail Stop 0298, Reno, NV, 89557, USA

    Anthony Papa

  2. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (116-B2) Boston, 150 South Huntington Ave (Room 13-B-74), Boston, MA, 02130, USA

    Brett Litz

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Correspondence to Anthony Papa .

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  1. Dept. Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, 89557-0062, Nevada, USA

    Crissa Draper

  2. Dept. Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, 89557-0062, Nevada, USA

    William T. O'Donohue

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Papa, A., Litz, B. (2011). Grief. In: Draper, C., O'Donohue, W. (eds) Stepped Care and e-Health. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6510-3_12

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