PTSD symptoms in survivors bereaved by the suicide of a significant other.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Although bereavement is not usually considered the type of stressor associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a risk factor often associated with poorer bereavement outcomes is when a death is sudden and unexpected. AIMS: The purpose of this exploratory study is to describe PTSD symptoms in survivors bereaved by the suicide of a significant other. The relationship of PTSD to mental health and grief were explored, as well as gender differences in PTSD symptoms. METHOD: To measure PTSD symptoms, the 15-item Impact of Event Scale (IES) was used. RESULTS: The IES intrusion and avoidance subscales were significantly correlated with the mental health subscale of the MOS SF-36 (Medical Outcomes Study-Short Form 36), indicating that lower mental health scores were associated with higher PTSD symptoms. Those survivors scoring higher than 25 on the Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG) had significantly higher scores on both the intrusion and avoidance subscales of the IES compared with those scoring lower than 25 on the ICG. Females reported significantly higher intrusion symptoms and total stress than males. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that a death by suicide may lead to the development of PTSD symptoms, at least in some individuals, and is associated with lower mental health quality of life and complicated grief responses.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Surviving family members are frequently confronted with a complex mix of grief, stigma, and structural vulnerability that adversely affects their mental and physical well-being.
“Surviving family members are frequently confronted with a complex mix of grief, stigma, and structural vulnerability5,6,7 that adversely affects their mental8,9,10,11 and physical well-being.9”
From Mortality Risk Following a Household Suicide (2025) · cites this paper as [8]
Cites
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
American Psychiatric Association (2013) · doi:10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596 · Cited by 116,369 · see citing works
Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences
Muller, K. E., & Cohen, J. (1989) · Technometrics · doi:10.2307/1270020 · Cited by 99,588 · see citing works
SF-36 health survey: Manual and interpretation guide
Ware, J. (2003) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 11,424 · see citing works
Impact of Event Scale: A Measure of Subjective Stress
Horowitz, M., Wilner, N., & Alvarez, W. (1979) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/00006842-197905000-00004 · Cited by 7,813 · see citing works
The MOS Short-form General Health Survey: Reliability and Validity in a Patient Population
Stewart, A. L., Hays, R. D., & Ware, J. E. (1988) · Medical Care · doi:10.1097/00005650-198807000-00007 · Cited by 3,339 · see citing works
Inventory of complicated grief: a scale to measure maladaptive symptoms of loss.
Prigerson, H. G., Maciejewski, P. K., Reynolds, C. F., Bierhals, A. J., Newsom, J. T., Fasiczka, A., Frank, E., Doman, J., & Miller, M. (1995) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/0165-1781(95)02757-2 · Cited by 1,582 · see citing works
(2002) · PubMed · Cited by 532 · see citing works
Predictors of psychosocial distress after suicide, SIDS and accidents
DYREGROV, K., NORDANGER, D., & DYREGROV, A. (2003) · Death Studies · doi:10.1080/07481180302892 · Cited by 327 · see citing works
Kaltman, S. I., & Bonanno, G. A. (2003) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/s0887-6185(02)00184-6 · Cited by 319 · see citing works
Complicated grief in survivors of suicide
Mitchell, A. M., Kim, Y., Prigerson, H. G., & Mortimer-Stephens, M. (2004) · Crisis · doi:10.1027/0227-5910.25.1.12 · Cited by 242 · see citing works
Self-citationZisook, S., Chentsova-Dutton, Y. E., & Shuchter, S. R. (1998) · Annals of Clinical Psychiatry · doi:10.3109/10401239809147032 · Cited by 146 · see citing works
Exposure to Suicide and Identification as Survivor
Cerel, J., Maple, M. J., Aldrich, R. S., & van de Venne, J. (2013) · Crisis · doi:10.1027/0227-5910/a000220 · Cited by 90 · see citing works
Boelen, P. A., van den Hout, M., & van den Bout, J. (2008) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2008.01.018 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Suicide in America: Frequently Asked Questions
(2013) · PsycEXTRA Dataset · doi:10.1037/e618702011-001 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Risks of suicide among family members of suicide victims: a nationwide sample of South Korea.
Jang, J., Park, S. Y., Kim, Y. Y., Kim, E. J., Lee, G., Seo, J., Na, E. J., Park, J.-Y., & Jeon, H. J. (2022) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.995834 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
“Like climbing a glass wall”: Suicide survivors in an Italian province
Tosini, D., & Fraccaro, D. (2022) · Death Studies · doi:10.1080/07481187.2020.1795746 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Mortality Risk Following a Household Suicide
Alves, F., Rodrigues, E. D. S., Toledo, L., Pescarini, J. M., Rodrigues, R. L., Naslund, J. A., Barreto, M. L., Patel, V., & Machado, D. B. (2025) · JAMA Network Open · doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.45286 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
- Authors
- Mitchell, A. M., & Terhorst, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- Corresponding author
- Mitchell, Ann M.
- Venue
- Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-10-15
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 61-65
- ISSN
- 1078-3903 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-5725
- OpenAlex
- W2530728352
- Cited by
- 51
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 3
- FWCI
- 4.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Keywords
- post-traumatic stress disorder, suicide bereavement, complicated grief, mental health, gender differences, intrusion symptoms, avoidance symptoms, quality of life, sudden unexpected death
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Bereavement, Family, Female, Humans, Male, Surveys and Questionnaires, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Suicide, Survivors
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
