Prevalance of Complicated Grief and Associated Factors in Psychiatric Outptients at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital

Abstract

Objectives :

To study prevalence of significant loss, complicated grief and factors associated with complicated grief in psychiatric outpatients at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital.

Method :

Eight hundred and forty-three patients were recruited from psychiatric outpatient department, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital during June - September 2014. All samples completed demographic and significant loss experience questionnaires. Only the participants who had significant loss would complete further 4 questionnaires; 1) Loss Experience Questionnaires, 2) Thai version of inventory of complicated grief (ICG), 3) Thai version of Beck depression inventory-II (BDI-II), and 4) social support questionnaire. The prevalence of significant loss and complicated grief were presented by proportion and percentage. The associated factors were analyzed by chi-square test. Logistic regression was used to identify the predictors of complicated grief in psychiatric outpatients.

Results :

In 843 psychiatric outpatients, most of them were female (62.6%) with the average age of 41.3 years. More than half (53%) were single. About one third was diagnosed with mood disorders (34.4%). The lifetime prevalence of significant loss was 63.5%. The prevalence of complicated grief was 16.6% and 26.6% in bereaved patients. About the history of significant loss, most of the deceased person was parents (56.6%) and 11.8% of patients had mild depression, 15% had moderate depression and 9.8% had severe depression. Most of psychiatric outpatient (69.7%) had moderate level of social support. The associated factors of complicated grief were being female, history of psychiatric hospitalization, loss of more than 1 persons, sudden death, overdependence with the deceased person, unexpected death, absence of relatives support, having depression and low level of social support (p<0.05). Logistic regression showed that the remaining predictors of complicated grief were being female, loss of more than 1 persons, lifetime of significant loss was parents/spouse and child, sudden death, overdependence with the deceased person, unexpected death, absence of relatives support, having depression and low level of social support (p<0.05).

Conclusion :

Complicated grief was commonly found in psychiatric outpatients. In this study, the prevalence of complicated grief was 16.6% of psychiatric outpatients and 26.6% of bereaved patients. Complicated grief is usually found in female, sudden death, unexpected death, low level of social support and having depression. Therefore, significant loss and complicated grief should be focused to prevent psychiatric disorders, especially depressive disorders.