Grief Reactions in the Elderly

Abstract

Learning Objectives 1. To recognize the nature of bereavement in old age as it differs from bereavement in other stages of life, including unique social and cultural constructs. 2. To understand the relationship between grief in older adults and comorbid medical and neurologic conditions, especially psychiatric and health-related quality of life. 3. To differentiate diagnostic criteria for bereavement-related diagnoses, address the current controversy around the “over-medicalization” of grief, and review the current evidence-based practices for clinical assessment, including the Inventory for Complicated Grief (ICG) [1]. 4. To discuss the current evidence-informed treatment of bereavement-related depression and complicated grief, highlighting treatment response prediction as an area of interest and in need of further research. 5. To summarize recent research findings in neuroimaging and neurobiology that contribute to our understanding of grief reactions in older adults. 6. To address the importance of continued research into risk factors, prevention strategies for adverse grief reactions, and strategies for the facilitation of healthy adaptation to loss. 7. To briefly present what is known about other unique grief circumstances that require further bereavement research, including grief in older LGBTQ adults, suicide bereavement, and grief in the setting of palliative care and hospice medicine, and grief reactions following catastrophic natural disasters.