An Empirical Study of the Proposed Complicated Grief Disorder Criteria

Abstract

Diagnostic criteria for complicated grief have been proposed as a pathological disorder for inclusion into the next edition of the DSM. However, to date, little empirical testing of the criteria to support or refute the diagnostic claims has been completed. Since the original criteria were developed based on work with widows and widowers, further testing with other bereft groups is needed before advancing complicated grief to a diagnosis worthy of inclusion in diagnostic systems. The present study was undertaken to empirically test the complicated grief disorder criteria. The basic criteria of the complicated grief disorder, formerly called traumatic grief, separation distress, and traumatic distress, were not isolated as distinct constructs in confirmatory factor analyses, and conceptualization as a unitary construct did not provide an adequate fit of the model to the data. Further analyses did not support the distinctness between complicated grief and depression, or complicated grief and normal grief. Based on these findings, both further investigation into the validity of complicated grief disorder as a diagnosis and verification of the validity of the diagnostic criteria is warranted before declaring this phenomenon appropriate for inclusion in diagnostic systems.