ArticleBMC palliative care2004
Bereavement care interventions: a systematic review.
Article in BMC palliative care, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 154 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impacts and effectiveness of support for people bereaved through advanced illness: A systematic review and thematic synthesis.Palliative medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Changes in routine health behaviors following late-life bereavement: a systematic review.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2014Pooled it
- Trial
- Trial
- Bereavement interventions for families in the ICU: a scoping review informed by a core outcome set.Annals of intensive care · 2025Article
- Participants' Perceptions of Advantages and Drawbacks of "Drop-In" Versus "Closed-Group" Formats Related to Cancer Bereavement Program Delivery.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2025Article
- "I have to be strong": A qualitative study of parental bereavement experiences in Uganda following the death of their baby.Women and birth : journal of the Australian College of Midwives · 2025Article
- Nursing Interventions in Primary Care for the Management of Maladaptive Grief: A Scoping Review.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2024Article
- "You are not alone": Connecting through a bereaved parent mentor program for parents whose child died of cancer.Cancer medicine · 2022Article
- Grief and Bereavement in Parents After the Death of a Child in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- Coping and wellbeing in bereavement: two core outcomes for evaluating bereavement support in palliative care.BMC palliative care · 2020Article
- The neonatal intensive parenting unit: an introduction.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2017Article
- Early Interventions Following the Death of a Parent: Protocol of a Mixed Methods Systematic Review.JMIR research protocols · 2017Article
- Depression among Parents Two to Six Years Following the Loss of a Child by Suicide: A Novel Prediction Model.PloS one · 2016Article
- Recommendations for palliative and bereavement care in the NICU: a family-centered integrative approach.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2015Review
- End-of-life care policy: An integrated care plan for the dying: A Joint Position Statement of the Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine (ISCCM) and the Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC).Indian journal of critical care medicine : peer-reviewed, official publication of Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine · 2014Article
- End of life care policy for the dying: consensus position statement of Indian association of palliative care.Indian journal of palliative care · 2014Article
- The effect of widowhood on husbands' and wives' physical activity: the Cardiovascular Health Study.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2014Article
- Psychological morbidity among suicide-bereaved and non-bereaved parents: a nationwide population survey.BMJ open · 2013Article
- Initiation of psychotropic medication after partner bereavement: a matched cohort study.PloS one · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDespite abundant bereavement care options, consensus is lacking regarding optimal care for bereaved persons.
methodsWe conducted a systematic review, searching MEDLINE, PsychINFO, CINAHL, EBMR, and other databases using the terms (bereaved or bereavement) and (grief) combined with (intervention or support or counselling or therapy) and (controlled or trial or design). We also searched citations in published reports for additional pertinent studies. Eligible studies had to evaluate whether the treatment of bereaved individuals reduced bereavement-related symptoms. Data from the studies was abstracted independently by two reviewers.
results74 eligible studies evaluated diverse treatments designed to ameliorate a variety of outcomes associated with bereavement. Among studies utilizing a structured therapeutic relationship, eight featured pharmacotherapy (4 included an untreated control group), 39 featured support groups or counselling (23 included a control group), and 25 studies featured cognitive-behavioural, psychodynamic, psychoanalytical, or interpersonal therapies (17 included a control group). Seven studies employed systems-oriented interventions (all had control groups). Other than efficacy for pharmacological treatment of bereavement-related depression, we could identify no consistent pattern of treatment benefit among the other forms of interventions.
conclusionsDue to a paucity of reports on controlled clinical trails, no rigorous evidence-based recommendation regarding the treatment of bereaved persons is currently possible except for the pharmacologic treatment of depression. We postulate the following five factors as impeding scientific progress regarding bereavement care interventions: 1) excessive theoretical heterogeneity, 2) stultifying between-study variation, 3) inadequate reporting of intervention procedures, 4) few published replication studies, and 5) methodological flaws of study design.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.