Morbid grief II: The phenomenology of pathologic grief process, depression and anxiety among close relatives of ‘red-terror’ victims

Abstract

Abstract:

To study the phenomenology of morbid grief and it's association to general distress, depression and anxiety, 91 randomly selected close relatives of the ‘red-terror’ victims completed four sets of questionnaires. All the questionnaires are self-rating, Amharic translated and with acceptable face validity, but not yet concurrently validated with their corresponding English versions. The percentage of positive endorsement and the mean score of each of the 34-items of ETIG (Expanded Texas Inventory of Grief) has ranged from 85.7% to 100% and from 1.71 to 4.81 respectively, indicating high degree of morbid grief. Items indicating ‘good outcome’ were found to show the opposite, i.e. ‘bad outcome’ even 18 years after the bereavement. The syndromes that belong to the complications of grief reaction are vivid and circumscribed. The magnitudes of endorsement and the mean scores of some of the items appear to be characteristic of the nature and circumstances of the loss and appropriate interpretation is necessary. The correlations between BTIG mean scores and the mean scores of GHQ-30 (General Health Questionnaire-30 item version), BDI (Beck Depression Inventory), and SAI (State Anxiety Inventory) were found to be weak, but significant. The GHQ-30, the BDI, and the SAI mean scores were found to have moderate to strong positive correlation coefficient to one another indicating common linkage they have to the pathologic grief reaction. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 1997;11(3):251-256]