Traumatic grief after disasters worldwide

Abstract

Experiencing the death of a significant other due to a disaster heightens the risk of disturbed grief with comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, also referred to as traumatic grief. The present symposium seeks to elucidate the patterns of traumatic grief symptoms following loss in major disasters in over 1500 disaster-bereaved people. First, the results of two latent class analyses on traumatic grief symptoms among Sichuan earthquake survivors and internally displaced Colombians will be discussed. Analyses show that traumatic grief, disturbed grief and/or PTSD symptom classes can be distinguished in disasterbereaved people. Next, two four-wave longitudinal studies will be presented on people bereaved through the Utøya terrorist attack and the MH17 airplane disaster. Results indicate that the course and aetiology of disturbed grief differs from PTSD and depression. Clinical implications of findings and cultural considerations will be discussed.