Psychiatry’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual‘s pathologizing of grief is but the latest installment of a lamentable tradition in Western civilization aptly chronicled by Philip Fisher in his book, The Vehement Passions(Princeton Univ. Press, 2002): “[T]he twin ideas of Christianity’s eternal life and Stoicism’s nature have for two thousand years … pressed against the legitimacy of mourning and against the strong imagination of personal loss and mortality that grief sets in front of us, not as an idea, but as a profound physical and emotional experience ” (p. 202). “Pain is not pathology,” I wrote in my book, Trauma and Human Existence (Routledge, 2007, p. 10). The traumatizing impact of human finiteness, as disclosed in the loss of a loved one, is not an illness from which one can or should recover.
Link: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780881634679/).
(c) Dr. Robert Stolorow
Robert D. Stolorow, Ph.D., Ph.D. is a Founding Faculty Member at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles, and at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, New York City. He is the author of World, Affectivity, Trauma: Heidegger and Post-Cartesian Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2011) and Trauma and Human Existence: Autobiographical, Psychoanalytic, and Philosophical Reflections (Routledge, 2007) and coauthor of eight other books. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Harvard University in 1970 and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of California at Riverside in 2007.
The MISS Foundation opposes the medicalization of grief
Note from Dr. Joanne Cacciatore
- A fascinating BBC documentary, Medicalising Grief, featuring Drs. Jerome Wakefield andJoanne Cacciatore
- And, finally, we have some movement from an MD at EU within the circle of psychiatry who, apparently, agrees with us:
Ringing the Bell to Save the Bereavement Exclusion
_____________________________________
For immediate release December 4, 2012
Dear MISS Foundation families, providers, and supporters,
We are saddened and disappointed by the recent announcement that the DSM-5 task force has finalized the decision to eliminate the bereavement exclusion from the Major Depressive Disorder diagnosis in the upcoming edition of the manual. This move will allow clinicians, including counselors, general physicians, social workers, and psychiatrists, to diagnose a major mental disorder in bereaved parents and other grieving individuals as early as two weeks following the death of a loved one should they meet the DSM-5’s criteria for depression. Importantly, many of you will recognize these criteria which include sadness, feelings of emptiness, crying, sleep and weight changes, guilt and regrets, and loss of interest or energy. Yet, all of these symptoms are quite common in grief, and particularly after the death of a baby or child which evokes enduring and intense reactions in parents.
This move has personal implications for the MISS Foundation. The DSM-5 change increases the likelihood that grief will be misdiagnosed as Major Depressive Disorder in the most vulnerable of all populations.1 The possibility exists that bereaved parents and other grievers will be mistakenly treated for a misdiagnosed mental disorder. Recent trends suggest that the most common form of treatment offered for this disorder is psychotropic medication.2-3 While some medications may be effective for some forms of depression,4 there is no sound evidence that they are effective for grief. Research shows that bereaved parents are already medicated earlier than can be justified by current evidence.5-6 We fear the DSM-5 change will exacerbate this trend and cause even more grieving individuals to be prescribed medication for symptoms which are actually a normative response, despite the lack of evidence to support this practice and a lack of information on how such medications may interfere with the grieving process.
The MISS Foundation has actively opposed this proposed change in DSM-5 and will continue to do so. You can read Dr. Joanne Cacciatore’s initial blog post which went viral in March of 2012 on this topic here. The first open letter outlining our concerns sent to the American Psychiatric Association in March can be read here and another letter sent in April can be foundhere. Finally, in October the MISS Foundation issued a formal letter on behalf of the organization and can be viewed here. Finally, many links to research and articles about this issue can be found in this blog entry at the end.
We issue a caution to our families: We urge bereaved individuals to be informed about what this change could mean when seeking help from medical and mental health providers usingDSM-5, scheduled to be published next year. Should you have concerns about the quality of medical/mental/emotional care you are being provided, please speak with experts who can help guide you. Get help somewhere, indeed.
Please be assured that many other parents are experiencing the same immense suffering and that you are not alone. Seek solace through skilled and highly trained providers who truly care for you and are willing to walk with you through your darkest times: providers who understand the death of a child as life’s worst tragedy and who will be truly present with and available to you. Seek solace through like others in support groups, online support, and through your community. Seek solace in spirituality and nature and books that help you to cope as you travel this overwhelming road. Seek solace through self-care and compassion. Seek solace through others who are unconditionally loving whether that be your partner, family, children, animals, or your faith based community. Seek solace through contemplative practice such as prayer, meditation, and quiet time and also through action in service and kindness toward others.
We issue an ardent appeal to providers: The bereaved are a vulnerable population. Please, be mindful and conservative in the issuance of diagnoses and medication, and educate yourselves in evidence-based practices as well as culturally influenced interventions. Take personal responsibility to learn what is truly normal, not pathological, after a traumatic death. The DSM-5 gives you much power and influence over the life of another. Please do not take this responsibility to “do no harm” lightly.
Dr. Joanne Cacciatore, Founder Kara Thieleman, MSW, PhD Student
Karla Helbert, LPC, Facilitator Dr. Melissa Flint, Clinical Psychologist
Jennifer Soos, MFT, Facilitator Dr. Trish Wonch Hill, Policy Analyst
Barry Kluger, CEO Kelli Montgomery, Executive Director
Yasaman Parsi, Grief Counselor Rebecca Ong, MSW, Grief Counselor
Click here to get copy of this article in PDF format.
References
1. Wakefield, J. C., & First, M. B. (2012). Validity of the bereavement exclusion to major depression: Does the empirical evidence support the proposal to eliminate the exclusion in DSM-5? World Psychiatry, 11(1), 3-10. doi:10.1016/j.wpsyc.2012.01.002
2. Mojtabai, R., & Olfson, M. (2008). National trends in psychotherapy by office-based psychiatrists. Archives of General Psychiatry, 65(8), 962-970. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.65.8.962
3. Olfson, M., & Marcus, S. C. (2010). National trends in outpatient psychotherapy. American Journal of Psychiatry, 167(2), 1456-1463. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.10040570
4. Kirsch I., Moore, T. J., Scoboria, A., & Nicholls, S. S. (2002). The emperor’s new drugs: An analysis of antidepressant medication data submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Prevention & Treatment, 5(1), 23a. doi:10.1037/1522-3736.5.1.523a
5. Cacciatore, J., Lacasse, J. R., Lietz, C., & McPherson, J. (In press). A parent’s TEARS: Primary results from the Traumatic Experiences and Resiliency Study. OMEGA.
6. Cacciatore, J., & Thieleman, K. (2012). Pharmacological treatment following traumatic bereavement: A case series. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 17(6), 557-579. doi:10.1080/15325024.2012.688699
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