Syracuse (WSYR-TV) -- We all know how awful it feels to lose a loved one. Now, doctors are considering classifying that grief as a type of depression.
A study by psychiatrists at New York University suggests grief can lead to severe and debilitating depression. If grief is added to the list of mental health disorders, more people would get access to treatment.
“Melancholic depressives get medications most of the time. A bereaved depressed patient probably wouldn't. So I think the classification could help diagnosis, research, treatment, actually it'd probably help us get better at what we do,” said Thomas Schwartz, MD, Adult Psychiatric Clinic Director at Upstate Medical University.
Under the current criteria, a depression diagnosis requires that a person have five or nine symptoms, including sleep problems, a feeling of worthlessness and a loss of concentration for two weeks or more. The criteria make an exception for normal grieving. That would change if the proposal goes through.
