Prolonged grief disorder in the families of COVID-19 pandemic victims: A phenomenological study

Abstract

Background and aims: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the human grief experience, putting bereaved people in difficult, complex, and unprecedented conditions. This study explored complicated grief (CG) experiences in the families of victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A qualitative study with a phenomenological approach was conducted in 2021 in Isfahan, Iran. Purposive sampling was used in this study. Data were collected by in-depth and semi-structured interviews with 14 family members of COVID-19 victims and analyzed using Colaizzi’s method. Results: Findings include 260 primary codes extracted according to the purpose and research question in 5 main categories and 15 subcategories. Incompatibility, helplessness, untimely death, inconsolable grief, and neuroticism are the themes of the main categories. Conclusion: Many painful physical, mental, social, and spiritual experiences lead to complicated grief in the families of the COVID-19 victims. Awareness of health providers of this helps reduce the experience of incompatibility, helplessness, untimely death, inconsolable grief, and neuroticism in order to manage behavior and reduce negative emotions through specific psychological interventions. It also helps them cope with grief and the resulting psychological suffering.

Keywords

• grief disorder
• complicated grief
• covid-19
• victims
• family
• phenomenology