Prolonged Grief Symptoms
Conditions
Keywords
grief, depression, bereavement, divorce, online self-help
Brief summary
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of an internet-based self-help intervention for older adults with prolonged grief symptoms after spousal bereavement or separation/divorce. The study design is a randomized trial with a waiting control condition of 12 weeks and a follow-up after 6 months. The investigators will test the following main hypotheses: 1. The intervention group shows a significant decrease in grief symptoms, psychological distress, depression symptoms and embitterment, and a significant increase in life satisfaction, as well as session related outcomes from baseline to 12 weeks post intervention assessment. 2. The effects in the intervention group are larger than the effects in the waiting control group. 3. These effects are stable from the post measure at 12 weeks to the 6-month follow-up.
Interventions
10 internet-based self-help sessions plus one supportive email a week with a cognitive-behavioural background
Sponsors
University of Bern
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
40 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Marital bereavement or separation/divorce. Both events should have happened more than 6 months before participating in the study. * Seeking support for coping with grief symptoms * Internet access * Mastery of the German language * Informed Consent
Exclusion criteria
* Acute suicidality (BDI Suicide item \> 1 or suicidal ideation in the telephone interview) * No emergency plan: In the telephone interview, an emergency plan will be developed which specifies a health care professional, who participants can turn to in an acute crisis. If no such person or health care service can be found, individuals will be excluded from the intervention. * Severe psychological or somatic disorders which need immediate treatment. * Concomitant psychotherapy (participants may take part in the self-help intervention, but will not be included in the study.) * Prescribed drugs against depression or anxiety lead to an exclusion if prescription or dosage has changed in the month prior or during the self-help intervention. * Inability to follow the procedures of the study, e.g. due to comprehension problems
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Grief symptoms | 12 weeks after the start of the intervention | Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (German version, Znoj,2008; Faschingbauer, 1981) |
| Psychological distress | 12 weeks after the start of the intervention | Brief Symptom Inventory (German version, Franke, 2000) |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Depression symptoms | 12 weeks after the start of the intervention | Beck Depression Inventory II (German version, Hautzinger, Kühne & Keller, 2006) |
| Satisfaction with life | 12 weeks after the start of the intervention | Satisfaction with life scale (German version, Schumacher, 2003) |
| Embitterment | 12 weeks after the start of the intervention | Embitterment questionnaire (Znoj &, Schyder, 2014) |
Countries
Switzerland
Outcome results
None listed