Attentional bias during acute grief predicts clinical outcome in suicide-related bereavement.
J Affect Disord
; 328: 6-12, 2023 05 01.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36750161
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Individuals who have lost a loved one to suicide are at increased risk for developing complicated grief (CG). It is unclear why only a subgroup of bereaved develops pathological forms of grief. Vulnerability may be related to the ability to regulate attention toward reminders of the deceased during the acute phase of grief. Using a longitudinal design, we determined whether loss-related attentional bias during acute grief predicts grief severity one year later.METHODS:
Thirty-seven participants grieving a first-degree relative or partner to suicide in the prior 6 months performed an emotional Stroop task using words related to the deceased, a living attachment figure, living non-attachment figure, and color congruent Stroop to quantify related attentional bias during the acute grief period. Clinical interviews were conducted at baseline (N = 37) and one year later (N = 35).RESULTS:
Participants showed greater attentional bias to deceased-related word trials compared with living attachment, non-attachment, and congruent trials, controlling for age, time since loss, depression, and psychiatric medication. A greater reduction in grief severity over time was associated with more deceased-related attentional bias at baseline. Self-reported grief avoidance was related to deceased-related attentional bias, with lower avoidance scores associated with greater bias.LIMITATIONS:
Lack of non-suicide grief control and small sample size.CONCLUSIONS:
Less deceased-related bias following the loss may hinder the transition from acute to integrated grief and result in poorer grief trajectories.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Suicide
/
Bereavement
/
Attentional Bias
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
J Affect Disord
Year:
2023
Document type:
Article