Psychosomatic Medicine 34:492-504 (1972)
© 1972 American Psychosomatic Society

A Psychoendocrine Study of Bereavement

Part II. Observations on the Process of Mourning in Relation to Adrenocortical Function

¹ Adult Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, US Public Health Service, Bethesda, Maryland, and the Department of Neuroendocrinology, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC

Address for reprint requests: Myron A. Hofer, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Montefiore Hospital, 111 East 210 Street, Bronx, New York 10467.

This paper reports psychologic observations on previously studied parents of leukemic children during the period of bereavement. Thirty-six parents returned to the hospital after 6 months and 21 returned at 2 years after their child's death for interviewing and urine collections. Extensive notes on structured interviews made without knowledge of the biochemical data revealed reliable differences between those parents in the highest quartile of adrenocortical excretion and those in the lowest quartile at the time of the first return visit. The degree of involvement in active mourning and the intensity of grief were more marked in the highest quartile. The psychologic processes accompanying individual changes in adrenocortical excretion between threatened loss and actual bereavement are discussed and problematic areas outlined with case examples.

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