ASSESSMENT OF GRIEF AFTER PREGNANCY LOSS - DEVELOPMENT AND INITIAL VALIDATION OF THE MUNICH GRIEF SCALE

Bereavement research is hampered conceptually by confounding of grief and depression, methodologically by a lack of generally agreed-upon me asures. Therefore we developed the Munich Grief Scale (MGS) based on t he Perinatal Grief Scale (PGS, Potvin et al. 1989) and results from a previous study. Validation included comparisons with standardized self -report scales of depression, anxiety and physical symptoms. It was ba sed on a follow-up study of 125 patients who had miscarried and 3 comp arison groups who either suffered from a miscarriage or a stillbirth. Self-reports were compared to expert ratings of grief and depression. The MGS is a economical, reliable self- and expert rating scale after pregnancy loss. The applicability of the grief measures to other kinds of bereavements remains to be determined.