Prolonged grief disorder is now officially considered a mental illness

Prolonged grief disorder is now officially considered a mental illness

As of last week, persistent grief disorder is officially a new diagnosis in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the catalog of mental disorders commonly used by doctors to diagnose patients and the standard classification of mental disorders. Despite the nearly decade-long debate over whether grief should be treated medically, the diagnosis has become official at a time when many Americans continue to experience disasters that have caused death and suffering, such as COVID-19, reports the American Psychiatric Association (APA). ).

Characterized by debilitating feelings of grief, persistent grief disorder occurs when a person loses a loved one (such as a friend or family member) within at least six months for children and adolescents, or within at least 12 months for adults, according to the APA. Typically, the bereaved person feels an intense longing or preoccupation with the deceased person - so much so that their reactions to the loss preoccupy them almost every day for at least a month.

Their bereavement is expected to last longer than societal norms (think of the five stages of grief), resulting in suffering or problems in important aspects of their lives, such as: B. in social or professional terms. Other symptoms of prolonged grief disorder include identity disturbances (i.e., feeling as if a part of yourself has died), a significant sense of disbelief about the death, avoidance of reminders that the person is dead, intense emotional pain, intense loneliness, emotional numbness, or a feeling that life is meaningless, among other symptoms, according to the APA.

“The circumstances in which we live, with more than 675,000 deaths due to COVID, may make prolonged grief disorders more common,” Vivian B. Pender, MD, president of the APA, said in an association news release about the official disorder. (Read more: Why Understanding Grief During Coronavirus Is So Important)

The inclusion of persistent grief disorder in the DSM means clinicians can now bill insurance companies for treating people for the condition, The New York Times reports. Clinical trials are currently testing the drug naltrexone, a medication used to treat addiction, as a form of grief therapy, and NTY says the development is likely to spark a stream of pharmaceutical research into other potential prescriptions.

“The inclusion of prolonged grief disorder in the DSM-5-TR will mean that psychiatrists, patients and families alike have an understanding of what normal grief looks like and what might indicate a long-term problem,” said Saul Levin, MD, MPA, executive director and medical director of the APA, in the association's press release. “Right now it is important to share information and raise awareness of ongoing grief disorders.”

However, some critics fear the new diagnosis will lead to false positives and encourage drug companies to convince the public that they need medical treatment to cope with grief, according to the NYT. “I completely disagree that grief is a mental illness,” Joanne Cacciatore, Ph.D., an associate professor of social work at Arizona State University who runs Selah Carefarm, a retreat for bereaved families, told the publication. "When someone who is a quote-unquote expert tells us that we are confused and feel very vulnerable and overwhelmed, we no longer trust ourselves or our emotions. To me, that is an incredibly dangerous step and short-sighted."

But others hope the official diagnosis will help those who have withdrawn from society because of their losses, not just recently but throughout history. “They were the widows who wore black for the rest of their lives, who withdrew from social contacts and lived the rest of their lives in memory of the man or woman they had lost,” Dr. Paul S. Appelbaum, chairman of the steering committee overseeing revisions to the fifth edition of the DSM, told the NYT. "They were the parents who never got over it, and that's how we talked about them. In colloquial terms, we would say they never got over the loss of that child."

While some may argue that grief is a key aspect of the human experience and therefore not a medical condition, there is no denying that the ongoing pandemic has resulted in loss and grief seemingly more present than ever before. So, aside from the official medical diagnosis, heed Dr. Pender's words: "If you have recently lost someone close to you, it is very important to check in with yourself. Grief is normal in these circumstances, but not at certain levels and not most days, almost every day for months. Help is available." (Next: A Grief Expert's Dealing with Pandemic Anxiety)