Severe pain shortens life: study

NEW YORK (HealthDay News)—People who grieve intensely for a loved one are nearly twice as likely to die within a decade of their loss, a new study says.

Those whose grief remained persistently high in the first years after a loss were 88% more likely to die within 10 years of their loved one's death, according to findings published in Frontiers in Public Health.

They are also nearly three times more likely to receive mental health care such as talk therapy, more than five times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants, and more than twice as likely to receive sedatives or anxiety medications, the results show.

“This is the first study to investigate long-term healthcare use and mortality patterns within a decade of bereavement in a large-scale cohort,” lead researcher Mette Kjaergaard Nielsen said in a press release. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the General Medicine Research Unit in Aarhus, Denmark.

For the new study, researchers recruited more than 1,700 bereaved men and women in Denmark, with an average age of 62. Among them, 66% had lost a partner, 27% a parent, and 7% another loved one.

Study participants received a questionnaire assessing their levels of grief during the first three years after losing a loved one.

About 6 percent of participants had grief levels that remained high over time, and 38 percent had persistently low levels, the results show. Another 47 percent experienced high or moderate grief initially that decreased over time.

Following people for 10 years, researchers found that those with severe, unrelenting pain were more likely to die early and to need some kind of psychiatric help.

But there is a possibility that doctors could identify people at risk for intense and prolonged grief, given that these individuals were more likely to have prescriptions for psychiatric conditions even before their loss, the researchers said.

“The ‘high bereavement’ group had lower education on average, and their more frequent use of medication before the bereavement suggested they had signs of mental vulnerability, which could cause greater distress after the death of a loved one,” Nielsen said.

He said a doctor might look for previous signs of depression or other serious mental health conditions.

“They can then offer these patients personalized follow-up care in general practice, or refer them to a psychologist in private practice or secondary care,” Nielsen said. “The (doctor) may also suggest a bereavement follow-up appointment focused on mental health.”

Study More details

It is not known why unrelenting pain would increase the risk of premature death.

Heart damage

“We have previously found a connection between high levels of grief symptoms and higher rates of cardiovascular disease, mental health problems, and even suicide,” said researcher Mette Nielsen. “But the association with mortality needs to be further investigated.”