Bereavement and psychiatric hospitalization.
Two hundred forty-nine psychiatric inpatients were compared with 249 matched controls and with a psychiatric hospital survey group of 95 patients for incidence of recent bereavement. There were no significant differences between the groups for loss of a first-degree relative in six months and one year prior to admission. There was a preponderance of affective disorder among the psychiatric patients with recent loss. Severe subjective grief reactions were found in the four patients who had lost a spouse or a child and in some patients who had lost a parent, while loss of a sibling usually evoked a mild reaction. Patients with alcoholism tended to increase their drinking during the bereavement period, resulting in incapacitation and hospitalization or, in the case of a control patient, in severe trauma.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000209:etiology*; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology*; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009679:Nuclear Family