Short course: Grief not a mental illness,says Lancet

Grief is not an illness; it is more usefully thought of as part of being human.

Grief is not an illness,according to The Lancet. In an editorial,the medical journal states that grief following the death of a loved one isnt a mental illness that requires psychiatrists and antidepressants.

Grief is not an illness; it is more usefully thought of as part of being human and a normal response to the death of a loved one, write the editors who are worried by moves which appear to categorise extreme emotions as diseases.

Doctors tempted to prescribe pills would do better to offer time,compassion,remembrance and empathy to those who are grieving,suggest the editors.

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In fact,the editorial opposes the American Psychiatric Associations controversial proposal to re-categorise grief reactions as a mental illness in the upcoming edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Medicalising grief,so that treatment is legitimised routinely with antidepressants,for example,is not only dangerously simplistic,but also flawed. Feelings of deep sadness,sleeplessness,crying,inability to concentrate,tiredness,and no appetite,which continue for more than two weeks after the death of a loved one,could be diagnosed as depression,rather than as a grief reaction,the editors write.

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