ArticleCurrent directions in psychological science2020
Matters of the heart: Grief, morbidity, and mortality.
Article in Current directions in psychological science, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07356635 (Investigating Cardiovascular Reactivity and Recovery of Young Adults During Grief-Recall, With Self-Affirmation as Potential Intervention), which is not on this map. Cited by 19 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.
Investigating Cardiovascular Reactivity and Recovery of Young Adults During Grief-Recall, With Self-Affirmation as Potential Intervention
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Grief-Related Chest Pain: A Review, Conceptual Analysis, and Integrative Model.Psychophysiology · 2026Pooled it
- Grief-Related Psychopathology from Complicated Grief to DSM-5-TR Prolonged Grief Disorder: A Systematic Review of Biochemical Findings.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Pooled it
- Spousal caregiving, widowhood, and cognition: A systematic review and a biopsychosocial framework for understanding the relationship between interpersonal losses and dementia risk in older adulthood.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Negative affect and peripheral inflammation: The role of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Article
- Encountering patients in grief due to the death of a loved one: nurses' experiences in municipal home care - a qualitative study.Journal of research in nursing : JRN · 2026Article
- Embodied harm and health consequences: self-reported physiological symptoms among co-victims of cold-case homicides.Health & justice · 2026Article
- Differences in protective resources and risks for depressive symptoms among recent widows in the United States and India.American journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Stimulated cytokine production, attachment, and emotional well-being in dementia spousal caregivers.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Article
- Cortical thickness and low-grade inflammation moderate the association between depressive symptoms and cognitive function in early widowhood: A preliminary study.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Article
- Spousal bereavement enhances proinflammatory cytokine production to acute, psychological stress.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- Preliminary Evidence of Higher Production of LPS-induced Proinflammatory Cytokines in Retired Versus Employed Dementia Caregivers.Biopsychosocial science and medicine · 2025Article
- Understanding siblings' grief: a scoping review focused on death by cancer.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Article
- Pathways to maternal health inequities: Structural racism, sleep, and physiological stress.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Review
- Qualitative Bereavement Experiences and Support in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Scoping Review.Omega · 2024Article
- The nature of grief: implications for the neurobiology of emotion.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2024Article
- Stressful life events, neighbourhood characteristics, and systolic blood pressure in South Africa.Journal of human hypertension · 2023Article
- Employment and family income in psychological and immune outcomes during bereavement.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2023Article
- Emotion Regulation, Parasympathetic Function, and Psychological Well-Being.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Socioeconomic disparities in health: Changes in sleep quality and inflammation during bereavement.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Spousal bereavement is associated with an elevated risk of morbidity and mortality. Several well-regarded multidisciplinary research teams have sought to understand the biopsychosocial processes underlying why widow(er)s are at elevated physical health risk. In this paper, we review research from multiple investigatory teams, including our own, showing that, on average, widow(er)s exhibit maladaptive patterns of autonomic, neuroendocrine, and immune activity compared to matched comparisons. Widow(er)s also exhibit poorer health behaviors than they did before their spouse's death. There is considerable variation in post-loss psychological adjustment trajectories among widow(er)s, which likely corresponds to physical health risk trajectories. Yet, there is little biobehavioral research on patterns of change in physical health risk after the death of a spouse. We summarize recently published work demonstrating the utility of attachment theory to characterize and predict individual differences in physical health biomarkers; we highlight the need for a biopsychosocial approach to understand and characterize post-loss trajectory patterns. We conclude by discussing the possibility that this line of inquiry could help researchers, and ultimately providers, identify adjustment trajectories earlier and thus deliver appropriate interventions when they are most needed.
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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.