Prolonged Grief Therapy

Abstract

This paper provides a concise introduction to Prolonged Grief Therapy (PGT), an evidence-based treatment for the new PGD diagnosis in DSM-5 and ICD-11. PGD differs from nonclinical grief as well as major depression and PTSD. PGD symptoms show little response to treatments for depression. PGD comorbidity predicts worse treatment outcome for PTSD. Our group began describing PGD in the mid-1990s, using the terms “traumatic” or “complicated” grief, and to develop and test a treatment for this condition. The publication in 2005 of our randomized trial became the first empirically validated treatment for this condition. It is based upon the premise that grief is the natural response to loss that continues for an indefinite period of time after someone close dies. It is based upon the premise that grief is the natural response to loss that evolves and subsides as a bereaved person learns to live in a world of absence. PGD is the result of impediments to this learning process and the treatment aims to facilitate learning to live with a loss and to address impediments to this process. The recency of its inclusion in DSM-5 leaves many clinicians unfamiliar with PGD, the treatment that we validated, the studies in which the treatment was tested and the ways available to learn and use this approach. This paper provides a brief summary of each of these topics.