COMPLICATED GRIEF AND MOOD DISORDERS - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY BETWEEN 69PSYCHIATRIC-INPATIENTS AND 29 CONTROLS

69 psychiatric inpatients hospitalized for depression and 29 controls of the general population are compared. All had previously experienced at least one bereavement. The depressed patients had experienced a gr eater number of losses, had more often lost a first degree parent. Alm ost half of them suffered from a complicated grief However the depress ed patients having unresolved grief as well as those having terminated their grief have equal depression intensity and similar therapeutic r esponses. Finally, in the control group, there is 25 % of complicated grief which would confirm the reality of '' complicated grief '' as an autonomous clinical entity, often comorbid with depression, but diffe rent Are discussed the relationship between protracted grief and depre ssion (reciprocal causality ? depressive revival of forgotten grief ? co-occurrence of depression and complicated grief ?), as well as the u tility and feasibility of prevention and treatment of these complicate d griefs.