Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:203-209
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
A controlled trial of brief psychotherapy and mutual-help group treatment of conjugal bereavement
CR Marmar, MJ Horowitz, DS Weiss, NR Wilner and NB Kaltreider
Center for the Study of Neuroses, University of California, San Francisco 94143.
Sixty-one women who sought treatment for unresolved grief reactions 4
months to 3 years after the death of their husbands were randomly assigned
to either brief dynamic psychotherapy with experienced clinicians or
mutual-help group treatment led by nonclinicians. Women in both groups
experienced a reduction in stress-specific and general symptoms as well as
improvement in social and work functioning. Women in the brief
psychotherapy group showed a greater decline in one measure of general
symptoms, and there was greater attrition in the group treatment condition.
When two subgroups who had completed the majority of sessions were
compared, treatments were found to be equally effective.
