Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-q6k6v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T14:15:09.952Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Understanding bereavement-related depression: the polemical journey of DSM-5

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2014

I. Ibrahim*
Affiliation:
Wilton, Cork, Ireland
*
*Address for correspondence: Izaida Ibrahim, MSc (Psych), MSc FPC, 25, Sandbrook, Sarsfield Road, Wilton, Cork, Ireland. (Email: izaidaibrahim@gmail.com or fis_1@yahoo.com)

Abstract

Objective

This paper will bring you on a polemical journey to understand the issues related in conceptualizing bereavement-related depression.

Method

A critical narrative review was carried out to evaluate arguments and controversies surrounding DSM-IV classifications of bereavement exclusion for the diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD).

Result

Available studies that are associated with bereavement exclusion criteria, the open trials and treatments with the implications of such conceptualizations and the current removal of the bereavement exclusion from MDD in DSM-5 were addressed.

Conclusion

The review highlights the never-ending polemical journey of conceptualizing any mental disorders, bereavement-related depression included.

Type
Review Article
Copyright
© College of Psychiatrists of Ireland 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ajdacic-Gross, V, Ring, M, Gadola, E, Lauber, C, Bopp, M, Gutzwiller, F, Rössler, W (2008). Suicide after bereavement: an overlooked problem. Psychological Medicine 38, 673676.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brent, DA (1994). Resolved several weeks of depressive symptoms after exposure to a friend’s suicide is ‘major depressive disorder’. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 33, 582587.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brent, DA, Perper, JA, Moritz, GM, Allman, C, Liotus, L, Schweers, J, Roth, C, Balach, L, Canobbio, R (1993). Bereavement or depression? The impact of the loss of a friend to suicide. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 32, 11891197.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brent, DA, Perper, JA, Moritz, GM, Liotus, L, Schweers, J, Canobbio, R (1994). Major depression or uncomplicated bereavement? A follow-up of youth exposed to suicide. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 33, 231239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Busko, M (2008). Bereavement-related depression identical to other depression types, Medscape (http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/584829). Accessed 13 August 2013.Google Scholar
Clayton, PJ (1990). Bereavement and depression. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 51 (Suppl.), 3438, discussion 39–40.Google ScholarPubMed
Corruble, E, Chouinard, VA, Letierce, A (2009). Is DSM-IV bereavement exclusion for major depressive episode relevant to severity and pattern of symptoms? A case control, cross-sectional study. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 70, 10911097.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coryell, W, Akiskal, H, Leon, AC, Winokur, G, Maser, JD, Mueller, TI, Keller, MB (1994). The time course of nonchronic major depressive disorder. Uniformity across episodes and samples. NIMH collaborative program on the psychobiology of depression-clinical studies. Archives of General Psychiatry 51, 405410.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Firth, P, Luff, G, Oliviere, D (2005). Loss Change and Bereavement in Palliative Care. Open University Press: England, 113.Google Scholar
Frances, A (2013). Perspectives: psychiatric diagnosis is too important for its own good. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine 30, 137140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hensley, PL (2006). Treatment of bereavement-related depression and traumatic grief. Journal of Affective Disorders 92, 117124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hensley, PL, Slonimski, CK, Uhlenhuth, EH, Clayton, PJ (2009). Escitalopram: an open-label study of bereavement-related depression and grief. Journal of Affective Disorders 113, 142149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobs, SC, Nelson, JC, Zisook, S (1987). Treating depressions of bereavement with antidepressant. A pilot study. Psychiatric Clinics of North America 10(3), 501–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karam, EG, Mneimneh, ZN, Karam, AN, Fayyad, JA, Nasser, SC, Chatterji, S, Kessler, RC (2006). Prevalence and treatment of mental disorders in Lebanon: a national epidemiological survey. Lancet 367, 10001006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karam, EG, Mneimneh, ZN, Dimassi, H, Fayyad, JA, Karam, AN, Nasser, SC, Chatterji, S, Kessler, RC (2008). Lifetime Prevalence of Mental Disorders in Lebanon: First Onset, Treatment, and Exposure to War. PLoS Med 5(4): e61. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050061.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karam, EG, Tabet, CC, Alam, D, Shamseddeen, W, Chatila, Y, Mneimneh, Z, Salamoun, MM, Hamalian, M (2009). Bereavement related and non-bereavement related depressions: a comparative field study. Journal of Affective Disorders 112, 102110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, KS, Myers, J, Zisook, S (2008). Does bereavement-related major depression differ from major depression associated with other stressful life events? American Journal of Psychiatry 165, 14491455.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lamb, K, Pies, R, Zisook, S (2010). The bereavement exclusion for the diagnosis of major depression. Psychiatry (Edgmont) 7, 1925.Google ScholarPubMed
Maj, M (2012). Bereavement-related depression in the DSM-5 and ICD-11. World Psychiatry 11, 12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Middleton, W, Raphael, B, Burnett, P, Martinek, N (1998). A longitudinal study comparing bereavement phenomena in recently bereaved spouses, adult children and parents. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 32, 235241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Norman, GR, Eva, KW (2005). Does clinical experience make up for failure to keep up to date? Evidence-Based Medicine 10, 6668.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pasternak, RE, Reynolds, CF III, Schlernitzauer, M, Hoch, CC, Buysse, DJ, Houck, PR, Perel, JM (1991). Acute open-label trial of nortriptyline therapy of bereavement-related depression in late life. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 52, 307310.Google Scholar
Pfeffer, CR, Jiang, H, Kakuma, T, Hwang, J, Metsch, M (2002). Group intervention for children bereaved by the suicide of a relative. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 41(5), 505513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pies, R. (2013). How the DSM-5 got grief, bereavement right, May 31, 2013, World of Psychology, PSYCH CENTRAL (http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/05/31/how-the-dsm-5-got-grief-bereavement-right/). Accessed 10 August 2013.Google Scholar
Reynolds, CF III, Miller, MD, Pasternak, RE, Frank, E, Perel, JM, Cornes, C, Houck, PR, Mazumdar, S, Dew, MA, Kupfer, DJ (1999). Treatment of bereavement-related major depressive episodes in later life: a controlled study of acute and continuation treatment with nortriptyline and interpersonal psychotherapy. American Journal of Psychiatry 156, 202208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shear, MK (2009). Grief and depression: treatment decisions for bereaved children and adults. American Journal of Psychiatry 166, 746748.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shear, MK, Simon, N, Wall, M, Zisook, S, Neimeyer, R, Duan, N, Reynolds, C, Lebowitz, B, Sung, S, Ghesquiere, A, Gorscak, B, Clayton, P, Ito, M, Nakajima, S, Konishi, T, Melhem, N, Meert, K, Schiff, M, O’Connor, M, First, M, Sareen, J, Bolton, J, Skritskaya, N, Mancini, AD, Keshaviah, A (2011). Complicated grief and related bereavement issues for DSM-5. Depression and Anxiety 28, 103117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stetka, BS, Correll, CU (2013). A Guide to DSM-5: removal of the bereavement exclusion From MDD, Medscape (http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/803884_10). Accessed 13 August 2013.Google Scholar
Stroebe, M, Stroebe, W, Abakoumkin, G (2005). The broken heart: suicidal ideation in bereavement. American Journal of Psychiatry 162, 21782180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taylor, MP, Reynolds, CF III, Frank, E, Cornes, C, Miller, MD, Stack, JA, Begley, AE, Mazumdar, S, Dew, MA, Kupfer, DJ (1999). Which elderly depressed patients remain well on maintenance interpersonal psychotherapy alone? Report from the Pittsburgh study of maintenance therapies in late-life depression. Depression and Anxiety 10, 5560.3.0.CO;2-F>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wakefield, JC, First, MB (2012). Validity of the bereavement exclusion to major depression: does the empirical evidence support the proposal to eliminate the exclusion in DSM-5? World Psychiatry 11, 310.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wakefield, JC, Schmitz, MF, First, MB, Horwitz, AV (2007). Extending the bereavement exclusion for major depression to other losses: evidence from National Comorbidity Survey. Archives of General Psychiatry 64, 433440.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weller, RA, Weller, EB, Fristad, MA, Bowes, JM (1991). Depression in recently bereaved prepubertal children. American Journal of Psychiatry 148, 15361540.Google ScholarPubMed
Zisook, S, Chentsova-Dutton, Y, Shuchter, SR (1998). PTSD following bereavement. Annals of Clinical Psychiatry 10, 157163.Google ScholarPubMed
Zisook, S, Corruble, E, Duan, N, Iglewicz, A, Karam, EG, Lanouette, N, Lebowitz, B, Pies, R, Reynolds, C, Seay, K, Katherine Shear, M, Simon, N, Young, IT (2012). The bereavement exclusion and DSM-5. Depression and Anxiety 29, 425443.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zisook, S, Kendler, K (2007). Is bereavement-related depression different than non-bereavement-related depression? Psychological Medicine 37, 779794.Google ScholarPubMed
Zisook, S, Paulus, M, Shuchter, SR, Judd, LL (1997). The many faces of depression following spousal bereavement. Journal of Affective Disorders 45, 8595.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zisook, S, Pies, R, Iglewicz, A (2013). Grief Depression, and the DSM-5. Journal of Psychiatric Practice 19, 386396.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zisook, S, Shear, K (2009). Grief and bereavement: what psychiatrists need to know. World Psychiatry 8, 6774.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zisook, S, Shear, K, Kendler, KS (2007). Validity of the bereavement exclusion criterion for the diagnosis of major depression episode. World Psychiatry 6, 102107.Google Scholar
Zisook, S, Shuchter, SR (1991). Depression through the first year after the death of a spouse. American Journal of Psychiatry 148, 13461352.Google ScholarPubMed
Zisook, S, Shuchter, SR (1993). Uncomplicated bereavement. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 54, 365372.Google ScholarPubMed
Zisook, S, Shuchter, SR, Pedrelli, P, Sable, J, Deaciuc, SC (2001). Bupropion sustained release for bereavement: results of an open trial. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 62, 227230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zisook, S, Shuchter, SR, Sledge, PA, Paulus, M, Judd, LL (1994). The spectrum of depressive phenomena after spousal bereavement. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 55 (Suppl), 2936.Google ScholarPubMed