Survivors at Risk: a Randomized Controlled Trial of primary prevention of complicated grief among first degree relatives of suicide victims.

Complicated (traumatic) grief is associated with a high risk of long-term psychiatric dysfunction. Suicide survivors may consist a high-risk group for psychiatric morbidity because of their shared pre-existing vulnerability for mental illness with the deceased relative and the impact of the suicide and the following bereavement on mental and physical health. Researches to the effect of primary prevention show that people who initially suffer most do benefit most of primary preventive intervention. Suicide tends to cluster in families; a family-focused intervention possibly prevents symptoms of complicated grief in the aftermath of suicide. Objective To determine whether a brief, nurse-led and family-focused program, based on cognitive behavioural therapy and psycho-education, given three to six months following the self-inflicted death of a relative is more effective in preventing complicated grief than ‘care as usual’.

A brief (four sesssions) nurse-led family focused intervention, based on cognitive behavioral therapy and psycho-education, offered between 3 and 6 months following the suicide prevent depressive and complicated grief symptoms at 13 months bereavement.

N/A

Brief, nurse-led family-focused 4 session intervention by trained psychiatric nurses, based on cognitive behavioural therapy and psycho-education vs. care as usual (controls).