Grief intensity, coping and psychological health among family members and friends following a terrorist attack

Family Coping With COVID-19: Unexpected Parental Loss and Surviving Parent Coping, Grief and Posttraumatic Growth Outcomes Based on Child Age

Guided by the conceptual framework of widowed parenting, the current study takes a relational approach to understand more about how the characteristics of parents of young and adult children relate to coping following the unexpected death of a partner due to COVID-19, and how these variables predict complicated grief and posttraumatic growth. A sample of 81 widowed parents completed self-report measures examining parenting self-efficacy, relationship uncertainty, coping, complicated grief, and posttraumatic growth. Results of hierarchical regression analyses suggest that, when controlling for time since death (1) relationship uncertainty and avoidant coping significantly predict complicated grief for parents in the sample with adult children, and (2) widowed parenting self-efficacy and both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping significantly predict posttraumatic growth for parents in the sample with young children. Results of the current study may inform future practices (e.g., use of Emotionally Focused Family Therapy) to aid families grieving an unexpected loss.

Stress, Personality, Attachment, and Coping Strategies During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The STERACOVID Prospective Cohort Study Protocol

BACKGROUND

Due to the lockdown linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, the French National Authority for Health has recommended reinforced follow-up of psychiatric patients, with particular attention to people over 65 years. Cross-sectional studies reported an increased risk of anxiety, depression, and suicide during this period. Older people with psychiatric disorders are at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 and worsening their psychiatric symptoms.

OBJECTIVE

The main objective is to evaluate the link between coping strategies and the onset of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after lockdown. The secondary objective is to assess the psychological factors influencing lockdown experiences such as personality, attachment type, or coping strategies.

METHOD/DESIGN

this is a multicenter cohort study including 117 patients followed up by phone in two French geriatric psychiatry units. Sociodemographic variables, psychiatric diagnoses, lockdown conditions, coping strategies, anxiety, and depressive symptoms reported during the first lockdown will be collected retrospectively from the medical file. A first prospective assessment including personality traits, attachment type, and traumatic life events will be conducted at 12 months (T1). Follow-up visits assessing anxious-depressive symptoms and PTSD will be made 18 (T2) and 24 months (T3) after the first lockdown. The primary outcome measure is PTSD symptoms. Secondary outcomes measures are coping strategies, generalized anxiety, anxiety about the COVID-19 pandemic, and quality of life.

DISCUSSION

This study aims to determine if the type of coping strategies usually employed have an impact on the onset of PTSD after a lockdown period. It will also determine if these coping strategies are influenced by other factors such as sociodemographic variables, lockdown conditions, particular personality traits, attachment type, and traumatic life events. This study could help identify factors associated with a poorer experience of lockdowns and pandemic crisis in elderly patients followed in a psychiatric center, and guide support in future similar situations.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov: http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT04760795, Registered 18 February 2021.

Predictive Factors of Depression Among Relatives of Brain-Dead Persons: A Descriptive Correlational Study

This study aimed to determine the predictive factors of depression among relatives of person deceased by brain death. In this study, 106 first-degree relatives of people who died of due to brain death were studied. Of the study units, 72.64% had levels of depression (severe, moderate, and mild). Among the dependent variables concerning deceased person, age and gender of the deceased were significantly correlated with the depression of their relatives. Among the variables concerning relatives, low level of education, unemployment and time elapsed after brain death have significant role in the incidence or prediction of their depression (p < 0.05). The results indicated a high prevalence of depression among relatives of men aged 30-50 who died because of brain death. It is recommended to consider this fact in planning to care relatives, especially among the low-educated, the unemployed and experiencing the first year of death, of people deceased by brain death.

Space-Time Surveillance of Negative Emotions After Consecutive Terrorist Attacks in London

Terrorist attacks pose significant threats to mental health. There is dearth information about the impact of consecutive terrorist attacks on space-time concentrations of emotional reactions. This study collected (1) Twitter data following the two terrorist attacks in London in March and June of 2017, respectively, and (2) deprivation data at small areal levels in the United Kingdom. The space-time permutation model was used to detect the significant clusters of negative emotions, including fear, sadness, and anger in tweets. Logistic regression models were used to examine the social deprivation of communities associated with negative tweeting. The results reported two significant clusters after the March attack, one was in London, ten days after the attack, and the other was far from the attack site between Manchester and Birmingham, three days after the attack. Attention to the reoccurring attack in June diminished quickly. The socially deprived communities experienced double disadvantage-sending fewer tweets but expressing more negative emotions than their counterparts. The findings suggest that terrorism can affect public emotions far and broad. There is a potential for surveillance to rapidly identify geographically concentrated emotions after consecutive or prolonged disasters using social media data.