The younger sibling of PTSD: similarities and differences between complicated grief and posttraumatic stress disorder
Open accessAbstract
Just as traumatic experiences may lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in some individuals, grief may also be a serious health concern for individuals who have experienced bereavement. At present, neither the DSM-IV nor the ICD-10 recognizes any form of grief as a mental disorder. The aim of this review is to summarize recent advances in definition, assessment, prevention, and treatment of complicated grief disorder (CGD) and to compare CGD with PTSD. Four areas are identified to be of importance to clinicians and researchers: (a) the recently proposed consensus criteria of CGD for DSM-V and ICD-11, (b) available assessment instruments, (c) recent prevention and treatment techniques and related effectiveness studies, and (d) emerging disorder models and research on risks and protective factors. This review focuses on the similarities and differences between CGD and PTSD and highlights how a PTSD-related understanding aids the investigation and clinical management of CGD.
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The core underlying characteristic of PGD is yearning for the deceased, whereas anxiousness and depressed mood are central to PTSD or MDD.
“The core underlying characteristic of PGD is 'yearning for the deceased', whereas 'anxiousness' and 'depressed mood' are central to PTSD or MDD (Maercker and Znoj, 2010;Shear, 2015).”
From The prevalence of prolonged grief disorder in bereaved individuals following unnatural losses: Systematic review and meta regression analysis (2020) · cites this paper as Maercker and Znoj, 2010
Table 2 in “Communalities and differences of CGD and PTSD” identifies yearning as the core symptom group for complicated grief, supporting the PGD portion of the claim. It identifies intrusive symptoms—not anxiousness—as the core symptom group for PTSD, and the paper does not establish depressed mood as central to MDD. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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Djelantik, A. A. A. M. J., Smid, G. E., Mroz, A., Kleber, R. J., & Boelen, P. A. (2020) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2020.01.034 · Cited by 395 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Maercker, A., & Znoj, H.
- Affiliations
- Psychopathologie & Klinische Intervention, Psychologisches Institut, University of Zurich , ZürichSwitzerland
- University of Bern (CH)
- ORCID
- Znoj, Hansjörg
- Venue
- European Journal of Psychotraumatology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2010-01-01
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 2000-8066 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3402016
- OpenAlex
- W2029610878
- Cited by
- 57
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 2.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- European Journal of Psychotraumatology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Bern Open Repository and Information System (University of Bern) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Figshare (cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
- Keywords
- complicated grief, post-traumatic stress disorder, bereavement, grief assessment, grief prevention, grief therapy, DSM-5 diagnostic criteria, ICD-11 criteria, risk and protective factors, disorder model
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