Francis, L. E., Kypriotakis, G., O’Toole, E. E., Bowman, K. F., & Rose, J. H. (2015). Grief and Risk of Depression in Context the Emotional Outcomes of Bereaved Cancer Caregivers. OMEGA-Journal of Death and Dying, 70(4), 351-379.
The close association between grief and depression has long since been seen as overlapping but separate concepts. The authors intended to investigate the relationship between early bereavement with regards to terminal illnesses, in the study’s case, cancer, and the connection to grief and depression (Francis et al., 2015). The authors conducted their research based on telephone interviews with the caregivers of bereaved patients, three months after their demise. The data obtained from the study was as a result of large-scale randomized trials. The authors conducted the interviews from two tertiary care hospitals located in the Midwest and which mostly serve disadvantaged patients in the region. In this case, 199 caregivers, as well as the cancer patients, were interviewed, two months after the diagnosis of the patient, and three months after their demise.
The motivation of the research was driven by the need to investigate the development of depression and the intense grief experienced by caregivers following the death of the patient. In this case, the authors had previously hypothesized that the aspects of grief were not associated with a depressed mood and a caregiving context. The authors applied two models that sought to illustrate the existence, (or lack) of a relationship between grief and depression as part of their literature, that is a medical perspective and a social science perspective.
Results from the study illustrated there existed a disconnection between grief and depression in relation to the caregiving aspect of patients suffering from cancer. As a result, the authors concluded that the two states, grief and depression, could not be merely equated on the basis of similarity of expression. This stance substantiated the initial hypothesis that guided the course of their research.
Reference
Francis, L. E., Kypriotakis, G., O’Toole, E. E., Bowman, K. F., & Rose, J. H. (2015). Grief and Risk of Depression in Context the Emotional Outcomes of Bereaved Cancer Caregivers. OMEGA-Journal of Death and Dying, 70(4), 351-379.
