The experience of losing a loved one is one of the crucial and most difficult experiences that individuals may cope with during their lifetime. Currently, much research is being focused on the criteria and the reactions of prolonged/complicated grief that occurs after the death (in comparison with adaptive grief). However, there are two areas which need special attention:
• the identification and clarification of the emotional, cognitive and behavioral reactions that characterize prolonged/complicated grief in different populations and
• the adaptation to loss can be difficult to manage and that is not acknowledged by the social environment, which is usually named as disenfranchised grief.
In the latter cases, there are multiple examples that may include cases of perinatal grief, loss due to the diagnoses of a chronic condition in oneself or in a close person, grief due to mental illness or in cases of the diagnosis of a disability, loss of a job, loss of a pet or even grief related to the multiple changes in the environment (ecological grief).
In these processes of disenfranchised grief, previous research has outlined the appearance of emotional difficulties (including yearning, anger, guilt or shame), mental and physical health problems (anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder) and difficulties to accept the reality of the loss. Given their specific characteristics, it is necessary to explore the experiences, obstacles, risk factors, as well as clinical aspects and interventions aimed at improving the needs of bereaved.
We are calling for papers examining any of these aspects of complicated/prolonged and/or disenfranchised grief. We welcome original studies (including qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods research), systematic reviews or theoretical articles on assessment, diagnosis, obstacles or barriers perceived by health-care professionals, as well as interventions and treatments in these populations.
We also welcome novel approaches to grief and bereavement including, but not limited to:
• developing new assessment tools to explore the experience of the bereaved;
• analyzing grief trajectories;
• comparison of prolonged/complicated grief criteria;
• ambiguous loss;
• chronic sorrow;
• post-traumatic growth or psychotherapy approaches to grief and loss.
The experience of losing a loved one is one of the crucial and most difficult experiences that individuals may cope with during their lifetime. Currently, much research is being focused on the criteria and the reactions of prolonged/complicated grief that occurs after the death (in comparison with adaptive grief). However, there are two areas which need special attention:
• the identification and clarification of the emotional, cognitive and behavioral reactions that characterize prolonged/complicated grief in different populations and
• the adaptation to loss can be difficult to manage and that is not acknowledged by the social environment, which is usually named as disenfranchised grief.
In the latter cases, there are multiple examples that may include cases of perinatal grief, loss due to the diagnoses of a chronic condition in oneself or in a close person, grief due to mental illness or in cases of the diagnosis of a disability, loss of a job, loss of a pet or even grief related to the multiple changes in the environment (ecological grief).
In these processes of disenfranchised grief, previous research has outlined the appearance of emotional difficulties (including yearning, anger, guilt or shame), mental and physical health problems (anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder) and difficulties to accept the reality of the loss. Given their specific characteristics, it is necessary to explore the experiences, obstacles, risk factors, as well as clinical aspects and interventions aimed at improving the needs of bereaved.
We are calling for papers examining any of these aspects of complicated/prolonged and/or disenfranchised grief. We welcome original studies (including qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods research), systematic reviews or theoretical articles on assessment, diagnosis, obstacles or barriers perceived by health-care professionals, as well as interventions and treatments in these populations.
We also welcome novel approaches to grief and bereavement including, but not limited to:
• developing new assessment tools to explore the experience of the bereaved;
• analyzing grief trajectories;
• comparison of prolonged/complicated grief criteria;
• ambiguous loss;
• chronic sorrow;
• post-traumatic growth or psychotherapy approaches to grief and loss.
