| Abstract [eng] |
Voinė, J. (2025). Prolonged grief reactions of people with mental health disorders. Master's thesis. Vilnius: Vilnius University, p. 52. Loss and bereavement are a natural and inevitable part of life, often accompanied by a range of intense emotions. Over time, for most people who have experienced the loss of a loved one, intense grief reactions decrease, adapting to the new reality of life without the loved one. However, for some mourners, this process becomes complicated and turns into long-term, intense longing, causing emotional distress or even severe disruption of everyday life. It has been observed that unusually long grief reactions can significantly impair a person's quality of life by increasing symptoms of depression and anxiety, risk of suicide, sleep disturbance, somatic disorders, etc. Therefore, a new diagnostic category of Prolonged Grief Disorder was introduced to the International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition (ICD-11) in 2018 and to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR) in 2022. The aim of this study was to assess the characteristics of prolonged grief in a sample of psychiatric inpatients. The study included 136 adults (58.1% women; mean age 40.5) receiving treatment in a psychiatric inpatient setting. Prolonged Grief Disorder-13 (Revised) (PG-13-R) was used to measure prolonged grief reactions; the Patient Health Questionnaire–4 (PHQ-4) was used to assess depression and anxiety symptoms. Participants were also asked to provide sociodemographic data (gender, age, education, employment status, etc.). Data analysis revealed that almost one-fifth (19.1%) of the study participants fell into the risk group for prolonged grief disorder. The risk of prolonged grief disorder overlaps with symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders – 9 out of 10 patients falling into the risk group for prolonged grief also experience clinically significant symptoms of depression and anxiety. In the study sample, the risk of prolonged grief was predicted by symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as older age. The study revealed differences in grief reactions between women and men: the risk of experiencing prolonged grief disorder in male patients increases with age, and the presence of depressive and anxiety symptoms may be a signal of experiencing prolonged grief disorder; in the female group, prolonged grief was significantly associated only with anxiety symptoms. |
