This literature review

This literature review focuses on the psychological concerns that clients are most likely to experience following a loss. Bereavement is the period of sadness and grief that follows the death or loss of someone or something. When a person grieves, he or she goes through a typical reaction process to a loss. Bereavement is always felt as a bodily, psychological, emotional, or social reaction (ArmitageHoffmann, 2001: Buckley et al., 2011). This paper examines the signs and symptoms of bereavement, as well as the prevalence rates and the influence it has on a client or any particular person. Bereavement can cause emotional or physiological reactions such as guilt, grief, despair, rage, and anxiety (ArmitageHoffmann, 2001: Buckley et al., 2011). The length of bereavement depends on the closeness of the client or victim to the person or something lost. The paper also discusses the determinants that influence therapy outcomes with bereavement in hand with the factors that affect the outcomes.

Signs & symptoms of bereavement

There exist no rules that determine the length of normal bereavement since every loss and every person vary a lot. Due to this reason, bereavement is not always diagnosed unless the conditions persist for an overextended period and the client's life is being impacted significantly. It is very challenging for almost every person to easily forget or get over his or her loved one that he or she has lost, (Bressert, 2017). However, for some individuals, the loss of a beloved person tends to be excessively much, that makes them encounter depression that is clinical in nature and requires more treatment and attention. Whenever the clinical attention is a loved one's loss of death reaction, bereavement is diagnosed, (Bressert, 2017). Normally, the grieving individuals claim to have symptoms or characteristics of an episode of major depression. These symptoms include sadness feelings, insomnia, weight loss, and poor appetite. The individuals who are bereaved always regard their respective moods of depression as being normal, (Bressert, 2017). In most cases, persons under this category sometimes see medical or professional help for treatment of anorexia or insomnia, which are associated symptoms of bereavement. Even if the client presents symptoms of the major depressive disorder, its diagnosis is not always given up to when the symptoms persist for a period of 2 or more months after the loss of a beloved one, (Bressert, 2017). Nevertheless, the existences of specific symptoms that are not part of the grief reaction are of great importance during the differentiation of an episode that is majorly depressive from bereavement. Amongst the important symptoms includes feeling guilty about the about the decisions or actions that the survivor takes at the death time. This indicates that a given individual is still undergoing a bereavement period. Another symptom is experiencing death thoughts. Sometimes the survivor feels that he would have also died instead of remaining alive, (Bressert, 2017). During this moment, the survivor prefers death to life. Another significant symptom of bereavement is the psychomotor retardation that is significant in nature. for example, the client may experience hardships in moving on with life or the movements that he or she makes are very slow compared to his or her normal movements when living a normal life, (Bressert, 2017). Other symptoms that the clients may experience include a functional impairment that is serious and prolonged, and hallucinatory experiences. For example, the bereaved person or individual develops thoughts of hearing the voice of the deceased and sees the lost beloved ones image transiently, (Bressert, 2017).

Prevalence rates of bereavement

According to the available statistics, the prevalence rate of bereavement is best estimated to be about 7% of the individuals who have ever suffered a loss of a beloved one. Reports show that an estimation of 60% of the entire population has ever had or suffered the loss of their beloved ones. This report carries an implication that over 10 million individuals in the United States are currently suffering from complicated bereavement, (ArmitageHoffmann, 2001: Buckley et al., 2011). The risk of suffering from bereavement that is complicated varies from one individual to another. These respective risks are always related to the particular person's characteristics, the things, or death's circumstances that take place after the death or loss of a beloved individual or person. It is very important to understand that there is a possibility of any person developing complicated bereavement. Additionally, one must not that majority of the individuals are resilient in nature. Looking at the statistics provided by research studies carried out in schools, about 22% to 30% of the students at college and the college undergraduates suffer or encounter bereavement during their first twelve months of the loss of death of their respective friends and family members, (ArmitageHoffmann, 2001: Buckley et al., 2011). This reports, which appears to be startling to some people and accepted by other individuals, is derived from numerous sources at prominent organizations, and sites of academic resources in the United States. The anecdotal reflections and clinical observations from studies that are empirical normally provide the prevalence rates of bereavement, (ArmitageHoffmann, 2001: Buckley et al., 2011). In old people in the United States, about 45% of the individuals suffer complicated bereavement amongst the people who lose their beloved ones. However, the populations of the women are affected more compared to the men\u2019s population mostly when they become widowed.

Psychological impacts of bereavement

Bereavement has numerous psychological impacts on the clients. Amongst these, include resentment and anger, (Hart et al., 2007). These two are common emotions found within individuals that are bereaved. The two are expressed as a rebellion against anything that tends to be an unfair, incomprehensible, and cruel fate. This impact is always regarded as a frustration reaction, which has an irremovable source, (Hart et al., 2007). These bereavement impacts make the person develop a feeling of being helpless and trapped. In such cases, the affected individuals often direct their respective anger to targets that are more accessible. The targets may include but not limited to a family member, physicians in the hospital, spouse, and the government including any other person or individual close to the chain of loss, (Hart et al., 2007). Additionally, bereavement affects an individual by making him or she develops a feeling of guilt. These guilty feelings are because of the bereaved individual searching for the actual cause of the loss. Furthermore, a bereaved person may develop signs of major depression due to the chronic bereavement period, (ArmitageHoffmann, 2001: Buckley et al., 2011). The affected individual feels that he or she cannot handle any situation that he or she encounters in life and prefers death to any other challenge in life. Additionally, the bereaved individual prefers staying lonely so that he can get ample time to think about the difficulties that he or she is going through. Bereavement also makes people lose hope and trust in medical theories, prayers, and all other means that tend to prevent death, (Hart et al., 2007). Whenever a given person loses very many beloved ones within a very short period because of sicknesses or diseases, he or she develops a feeling that nothing can stop death. Such kind of a bereaved person does not accept any counsel received from either of the departments on which he or she is biased, (Manor and Eisenbach, 2003: Jones et al., 2010). Sometimes, bereavement leads to permanent madness. For instance, when a person loses a person closest to him or her unexpectedly, the situation may prove too difficult to contain. The bereaved person loses a sense of control, which consequently results in madness, (Manor and Eisenbach, 2003: Jones et al., 2010). This mostly happens to children who lose their parents at a youthful age in which they feel that their respective parents are the key to every need in life. In response to such an incident, the bereaved starts to behave in a weird way, which sometimes results in permanent mental damage or madness if not attended or responded to quickly. Besides, when someone loses the closest person, a sense of humanity is lost in a way that the bereaved no longer feels sorry for other people who lose their beloved ones. He or she starts looking at death as being a normal situation that cannot be avoided. Individuals who are impacted by bereavement in such a way become capable of doing some things that are so destructive. In other words, bereavement can create killers or murderers, (Manor and Eisenbach, 2003: Jones et al., 2010). For example, when someone loses his or her beloved one as a result of an attack by robbers or thieves, the bereaved will never have a heart of forgiving any person involved in such acts. He or she instead wishes a death person to all robbers and thieves to an extent that if given a chance, he or she can take their respective lives.

Determinants that influence therapy outcomes with bereavement and the factors that affect outcomes. The major determinants that influence therapy outcomes with bereavement include social support and mourning rituals. Looking at social support, there are four aspects that are realized. These aspects include enhancement of self-esteem and starting to feel that you are loved, networking, provision of related resources that aid in meeting the transitions of the life cycle, and problem-solving, (Gumming, Olphin and Law, 2007: Germain et al., 2006). Once all these aspects are available in the life of the bereaved individual, the therapy outcomes are always better than when these respective aspects are absent. To a certain extent, mourning rituals also influence outcomes of therapy with bereavement. Different cultures have different ways of mourning, (Gumming, Olphin and Law, 2007: Germain et al., 2006). Some cultures mourn for extended periods while others mourn for just a limited period. In case a culture mourns for an extended period, the bereavement therapy may be affected negatively compared to situations where the culture mourns for a limited time. The client takes long to forget the lost beloved one in cultures that mourn for a longer period than those that mourn for a limited period.

Numerous factors affect outcomes during bereavement therapy

The major factors include attitude towards therapy and the relationship between the patient and the prescriber. Whenever the patient has a good attitude towards the bereavement therapy, the outcomes are always positive compared to when the patient's attitude towards the therapy is negative, (Khanfer, Lord and Phillips, 2011: Nicolson, 2004). Positive attitude increases the patient's belief in the therapy hence positive results are guaranteed. When the patient-prescriber relationship is good, the patient is encouraged to follow every instruction that he or she is given during the therapy, which increases the possibility of positive outcomes, (Khanfer, Lord and Phillips, 2011: Nicolson, 2004).

References

Bressert, S. (2017). Bereavement Symptoms. Psych Central. Retrieved on August 22, 2017, from https://psychcentral.com/disorders/bereavement-symptoms/

Hart C., Hole D., Lawlor D., Smith G., Lever T. (2007). Effect of conjugal bereavement on mortality of the bereaved spouse in participants of the Renfrew/Paisley Study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 61:455–460.

Manor O., Eisenbach Z. (2003). Mortality after the spousal loss: are there sociodemographic differences? SocSciMed. 56:405–413.

Jones MP., Bartrop RW., Forcier L., Penny R. (2010). The long-term impact of bereavement upon spouse health: a 10-year follow-up. Acta Neuropsychiatries. 22:212–217.

Khanfer R., Lord J., Phillips A. (2011). Neutrophil function and cortisol: DHEAS ratio in bereaved older adults. Brain Behav Immun. 25:1182–1186.

Nicolson NA. (2004). Childhood parental loss and cortisol levels in adult men. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 29:1012–1018.

Armitage R., Hoffmann R. (2001). Sleep EEG, depression and gender. Sleep Med Rev. 5:237–246.

Buckley T., Mihailidou A., Bartrop R., et al. (2011). Haemodynamic changes during early bereavement: potential contribution to increased cardiovascular risk. Heart Lung Circulation. 20:91–98.

Gumming J., Olphin T., Law M. (2007). Self-reported psychological states and physiological responses to different types of motivational general imagery. J Sports Exerc Psychol. 29:629–644.

Germain A., Shear K., Monk TH., et al. (2006). Treating complicated grief: effects on sleep quality. Behav Sleep Med. 4:152–163.