title: Clinical presentation and treatment outcome of African Americans with complicated grief.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study sought to examine whether ethnic differences occur in the presentation of patients with complicated grief or their treatment outcome.
  
  
  METHODS
  Analyses of a randomized controlled trial comparing a novel psychotherapy for complicated grief with interpersonal psychotherapy contrasted the clinical presentation, treatment alliance, and rates of treatment completion and response for 19 African Americans with complicated grief and 19 Caucasian Americans with complicated grief matched by sex, age, and baseline grief severity. Participants were randomly assigned to receive 16 sessions of either standard interpersonal psychotherapy or interpersonal psychotherapy enhanced with focused complicated grief components.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No differences were found in any clinical or treatment-related measure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  African Americans and Caucasian Americans with complicated grief did not differ significantly in clinical presentation, treatment alliance, treatment completion, and outcome. The results suggest that standard treatment for complicated grief can be provided successfully for different racial and economic groups.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. cruzm@upmc.edu
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cruz
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Houck
authors.forename: Charles F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Reynolds
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Frank
authors.forename: M Katherine
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Shear
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods; D014481:United States; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology*