Inhibited grief is a type of abnormal grief where the person seems to be very little affected by a major bereavement, and typical grief never emerges. Psychiatric symptoms, especially depression, may occur, and the link with the recent bereavement may not be recognised either by the patient or the doctor.
Psychotropic drugs are not usually effective here and treatment with guided mourning is indicated. The necessity for grief work should be explained to the patient, who should be asked to think about the disease, however distressing this may be. They should be encouraged to bring photographs and other reminders to the therapy sessions and to go over the events leading up to the death. Some of the patients show an idealisation of the dead person which is a defence against the anger they feel towards the deceased for being abandoned, which needs to be brought into the open and expressed.
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