New developments in treatment research for prolonged grief disorder

Outline: About 5% of bereaved people develop Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD), and while research into diagnostic criteria is well underway, research into treatment is still in its infancy. This symposium consists of four presentations covering a wide range of treatment research with different designs (reviews and clinical trials), specific subgroups (refugees and outpatients) and life span aspects (children, adolescents and adults). While the first presentation focuses on the Grief Cultural Formulation Interview (BG-CFI) in the psychotherapy of traumatic grief in refugees (Smid et al.), the second presentation describes mechanisms of change in the treatment of children (Boelen and Spuij). Rosner et al. present the results of a randomised clinical trial comparing two active psychotherapy conditions and describe the effect of treatment outcome during the Covid-19 pandemic. Finally, O’Connor et al. summarise clinical recommendations for the treatment of problematic grief symptoms based on a systematic review of treatment effects.