The videos below were developed as part of an National Institute of Mental Health (R21 MH095378)-funded investigation of the clinical utility of a Prolonged Grief Disorder diagnosis, which was awarded to Principal Investigators Drs. Wendy Lichtenthal and Holly G. Prigerson. These video-clips are shared here to assist clinicians in making a differential diagnosis of mental disorders secondary to bereavement. Specifically, they illustrate bereaved individual cases of normal grief, Prolonged Grief Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
We wish to share these video-clips with mental health professionals and the general public to promote understanding of the distinctions between normal and pathological responses to the death of a loved one. The goal is not to label bereaved individuals as “well” or “sick,” but rather to identify characteristics associated with prolonged suffering, dysfunction, and distress. Understanding these distinctions is a first step in the direction of providing tools to promote adaptive responses to a potentially disabling loss.