HHS HealthBeat (March 22, 2007)

The stages of grief

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

When someone you love dies, you naturally miss the person. Eventually, grief normally ebbs.

Researchers who tracked the grieving process say it typically has stages that peak in waves. They say it looks like this: acceptance of the loss, followed by disbelief, yearning, anger, and depression.

Doctors had believed depression was the dominant feeling. But the new research says the dominant feeling is yearning for the loved one.

And researcher Holly Prigerson of Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who focused on adults grieving after a death from natural causes, says the pain of loss does ease:

"Just in general, on average, by six months most people have gone through some of the worst of their grief." (7 seconds)

The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: April, 06 2007