CBT More Effective Than Mindfulness for Prolonged Grief Symptoms Over Time, Study Finds

Both grief-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy improved patients ’ symptoms of prolonged grief disorder immediately after 11 weeks of treatment, according to astudy published yesterday inJAMA Psychiatry. Grief-focused CBT, however, was more effective in reducing patients ’ symptom severity six months after treatment ended.“[B]etween 15% and 25% of patients with prolonged grief disorder offered grief-focused cognitive behavior therapy decline to participate in treatment, and between 17% and 50% may not respond to treatment,” wrote Richard A. Bryant, Ph.D., of the University of New South Wales in Australia and coll eagues. “A viable means to advance treatment of prolonged grief disorder is to evaluate therapeutic options that do not explicitly evoke distress through loss-focused strategies.”Bryant and colleagues recruited 100 adults (87% female) aged 18 to 70 with prolonged grief disorder; diagnoses were made usingICD-11 criteria as this study was conducted prior toDSM-5-TR. Participants were evenly randomized to receive either grief-focused CBT or mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Both interventions consisted of 11 weekly, 90-minute individual sessions. Grief-focused CBT included psychoeducation about prolonged grief disorder, cognitive reframing of maladaptive grief-related thoughts, and activities that promoted positive memories of the deceased. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy included meditation, descriptions...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: cognitive behavior therapy JAMA Psychiatry meditation mindfulness-based cognitive therapy Ph.D. prolonged grief disorder Randomized Clinical Trial Richard A. Bryant University of New South Wales Source Type: research