Trial reportJAMA psychiatry2014
Treatment of complicated grief in elderly persons: a randomized clinical trial.
Trial report in JAMA psychiatry, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 77 papers, 3 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.
Complicated Grief Treatment in Older Adults
Developing a Family-Focused Treatment for Prolonged Grief for Parental Suicide Bereaved Families With Children
Who cites it
77 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 263 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bidirectional associations between prolonged grief symptoms and depressive, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress symptoms: A systematic review.Journal of traumatic stress · 2024Pooled it
- Synthesising existing research on complicated grief in intellectual disability: findings from a systematic review.Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Iyengar yoga and health education interventions for prolonged grief disorder in later life: feasibility of a randomized controlled pilot trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- A Longitudinal Examination of Quality of Life of Older Adults with Complicated Grief Receiving Accelerated Resolution Therapy.Journal of palliative medicine · 2022Trial
- Change in avoidance and negative grief-related cognitions mediates treatment outcome in older adults with prolonged grief disorder.Psychotherapy research : journal of the Society for Psychotherapy Research · 2022Trial
- Understanding the impact of complicated grief on combat related posttraumatic stress disorder, guilt, suicide, and functional impairment in a clinical trial of post-9/11 service members and veterans.Depression and anxiety · 2020Trial
- Changes in typical beliefs in response to complicated grief treatment.Depression and anxiety · 2020Trial
- Impact of sleep on complicated grief severity and outcomes.Depression and anxiety · 2020Trial
- Medical comorbidity in complicated grief: Results from the HEAL collaborative trial.Journal of psychiatric research · 2018Trial
- Long-term effects of the Family Bereavement Program on spousally bereaved parents: Grief, mental health problems, alcohol problems, and coping efficacy.Development and psychopathology · 2016Trial
- Optimizing Treatment of Complicated Grief: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA psychiatry · 2016Trial
- Grief modular group therapy: theoretical bases and pilot study of a new bereavement intervention programme in China.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Perceived opportunities and risks of using deepfake technology in grief treatment: a qualitative study among Dutch bereaved people and mental health care workers.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- 'I Know Death': Perceptions and Attitudes Towards Death Among Middle-Aged Adults With Intellectual Disabilities in South Korea.Journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities : JARID · 2026Article
- Mental health care following stillbirth and termination of pregnancy: practice patterns and observed outcomes in a reproductive psychiatry center.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Prolonged grief disorder in later life: advancing our understanding of biopsychosocial mechanisms to guide future personalized interventions.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Psychotherapy for older adults with depression: a narrative review.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- The Potential Role of Palliative Care and Hospice in Addressing Prolonged Grief Disorder in the United States.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2025Article
- Prolonged grief disorder in bereaved parents: Exploring impacts and treatment pathways.World journal of psychiatry · 2025Review
17 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
importanceComplicated grief (CG) is a debilitating condition, most prevalent in elderly persons. However, to our knowledge, no full-scale randomized clinical trial has studied CG in this population.
objectiveTo determine whether complicated grief treatment (CGT) produces greater improvement in CG and depressive symptoms than grief-focused interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT). DESIGN, SETTING, AND
participantsRandomized clinical trial enrolling 151 individuals 50 years or older (mean [SD] age, 66.1 [8.9] years) scoring at least 30 on the Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG). Participants were recruited from the New York metropolitan area from August 20, 2008, through January 7, 2013, and randomized to receive CGT or IPT. The main outcome was assessed at 20 weeks after baseline, with interim measures collected at 8, 12, and 16 weeks after baseline.
interventionsSixteen sessions of CGT (n = 74) or IPT (n = 77) delivered approximately weekly. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Rate of treatment response, defined as a rating from an independent evaluator of much or very much improved on the Improvement subscale of the Clinical Global Impression Scale.
resultsBoth treatments produced improvement in CG symptoms. Response rate for CGT (52 individuals [70.5%]) was more than twice that for IPT (24 [32.0%]) (relative risk, 2.20 [95% CI, 1.51-3.22]; P < .001), with the number needed to treat at 2.56. Secondary analyses of CG severity and CG symptom and impairment questionnaire measures confirmed that CGT conferred a significantly greater change in illness severity (22 individuals [35.2%] in the CGT group vs 41 [64.1%] in the IPT group were still at least moderately ill [P = .001]), rate of CG symptom reduction (1.05 ICG points per week for CGT vs 0.75 points per week for IPT [t633 = 3.85; P < .001]), and the rate of improvement in CG impairment (0.63 work and Social Adjustment Scale points per week with CGT and 0.39 points per week with IPT [t503 = 2.87; P = .004]). Results were not moderated by participant age. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Complicated grief treatment produced clinically and statistically significantly greater response rates for CG symptoms than a proven efficacious treatment for depression (IPT). Results strongly support the need for physicians and other health care providers to distinguish CG from depression. Given the growing elderly population, the high prevalence of bereavement in aging individuals, and the marked physical and psychological impact of CG, clinicians need to know how to treat CG in older adults.
trial registrationclinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01244295.
Indexed as
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.