Prolonged Grief Disorder

The following open access articles cover a range of topics in relation to prolonged grief disorder (PGD), including evaluations of cognitive therapy for PGD and the cognitive processes involved in grief.

2025

Killikelly, C., Smith, K.V., Zhou, N., Prigerson, H.G., O’Connor, M.F., Kokou-Kpolou, K., Boelen, P.A., Maercker, A. (2025). Prolonged Grief Disorder. The Lancet, 405(10489), 1621-1632. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(25)00354-X

Ren, F., Zhou, N., Cao, C., She, Z., Smith, K.V., Xi, J. (2025). Can self-distancing benefit adjustment to bereavement? A multi-method investigation. Social Science & Medicine, 367. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117743

2024

Smith, K.V., Wild, J., Ehlers, A. (2024). From loss to disorder: The influence of maladaptive coping in prolonged grief. Psychiatry Research, 339. 10.1016/j.psychres.2024.116060

Egan, S. J., Munro, C., Pauley-Gadd, S. B., O’Brien, A., Callaghan, T., Payne, N., Raghav, S., Myers, B., Hall, C., Wilson, H., Eisma, M. C., Boelen, P. A., Smith, K. V., Wild, J., Duffy, M., Trickey, D., Bills, E., & Breen, L. J. (2024). A protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial of unguided internet cognitive behaviour therapy for grief in adolescents. Internet interventions, 38. doi:10.1016/j.invent.2024.100771

Rodriguez-Villar, S., Okegbola, E. O., Arevalo-Serrano, J., Duval, Y., Mathew, A., Rodriguez-Villar, C., … Prigerson, H. G. (2024). Grief and coping among relatives of patients who died of COVID-19 in intensive care during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. BJPsych Open, 10(6). doi:10.1192/bjo.2024.741

2023

Zhou, N., Wei, Y., Killikelly, C., Xu, X., Stelzer, E. M., Maercker, A., Xi, J., & Smith, K. V. (2023). The relationship between social acknowledgment and prolonged grief symptoms: a multiple mediation effect of beliefs about the goodness and controllability of grief-related emotions. European journal of psychotraumatology, 14(2). doi:10.1080/20008066.2023.2220633

Zhou, N., Smith, K. V., Stelzer, E., Maercker, A., Xi, J., & Killikelly, C. (2023). How the bereaved behave: a cross-cultural study of emotional display behaviours and rules. Cognition & emotion, 37(5), 1023–1039. doi:10.1080/02699931.2023.2219046

Zhou, N., Zhao, Y., Smith, K. V., Killikelly, C., Stelzer, E., Maercker, A., Xi, J., & Helm, P. J. (2023). Existential isolation and prolonged grief in bereaved people: The moderating role of culture. Clinical psychology & psychotherapy, 30(4), 862–872. doi:10.1002/cpp.2846

Duffy, M., & Wild, J. (2023). Living with loss: a cognitive approach to prolonged grief disorder – incorporating complicated, enduring and traumatic grief. Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy, 51(6), 645–658. doi:10.1017/S1352465822000674

Wanza, C., Gonschor, J., Smith, K., Ehlers, A., Barke, A., Rief, W., Doering, B. (2023). Feeling Alone in one’s Grief: Investigating Social Cognitions in Adaption to Bereavement using the German Version of the Oxford Grief-Social Disconnection Scale. European Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 7(2), 2468-7499. doi:10.1016/j.ejtd.2023.100327

Smith, K.V., & Ehlers, A. (2023). Coping strategies as a causal mediator of the effect of loss-related memory characteristics and negative loss-related appraisals on symptoms of PGD, PTSD and depression. Psychological Medicine, 53(4), 1542-1551. doi:10.1017/S0033291721003123

2022

Smith, K. V., Wild, J., & Ehlers, A. (2022). Psychometric Characteristics of the Oxford Grief Memory Characteristics Scale and Its Relationship With Symptoms of ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR Prolonged Grief Disorder. Frontiers in psychiatry, 13. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.814171

2021

Harrop, E., Goss, S., Farnell, D., et al. (2021). Support needs and barriers to accessing support: Baseline results of a mixed-methods national survey of people bereaved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Palliative Medicine, 35(10), 1985-1997. doi:10.1177/02692163211043372

Prigerson, H. G., Boelen, P. A., Xu, J., Smith, K. V., & Maciejewski, P. K. (2021). Validation of the new DSM-5-TR criteria for prolonged grief disorder and the PG-13-Revised (PG-13-R) scale. World Psychiatry, 20(1), 96-106. doi:10.1002/wps.20823

Smith, K. V., & Ehlers, A. (2021). Prolonged Grief and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Following the Loss of a Significant Other: An Investigation of Cognitive and Behavioural Differences. PLOS ONE 16(4): e0248852. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0248852

2020

Smith, K.V., Rankin, H., & Ehlers, A. (2020). A qualitative analysis of loss-related memories after cancer loss: a comparison of bereaved people with and without prolonged grief disorder, European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 11(1). doi:10.1080/20008198.2020.1789325

Smith, K. V., Wild, J., & Ehlers, A. (2020). The Masking of Mourning: Social disconnection in Bereavement and its Role in Psychological Distress. Clinical Psychological Science, 8(3), 1-13. doi:10.1177/2167702620902748

Smith, K. V., & Ehlers, A. (2020). Cognitive predictors of grief trajectories in the first months of loss: A latent growth mixture model. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 88(2), 93–105. doi:10.1037/ccp0000438

2018

Jerome, H., Smith, K. V., Shaw, E. J., Szydlowski, S., Barker, C., Pistrang, N., & Thompson, E. H. (2018). Effectiveness of a Cancer Bereavement Therapeutic Group.  Journal of Loss and Trauma, 23(7), 574-587. doi:10.1080/15325024.2018.1518772