Bereaved relatives with high-grief symptoms have higher mortality rates, medication use

Key takeaways

Individuals with high-grief trajectories were nearly twice as likely to die within 10 years.

They also reported an increased use of mental health services, psychotropic medication and physician contacts.

Perspective from Paul Nestadt, MD

Individuals with persistently high levels of grief symptoms had more frequent contact with their physician, greater medication use and excess mortality rates, according to a study published in Frontiers in Public Health .

Mette K. Nielsen , PhD , a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark, and colleagues previously studied grief trajectories and the effects of bereavement on functional impairment, but they had not explored the long-term implications of bereavement and grief after 3 years.

Data were derived from Ni