HealthDay (7/25, Gotkine) reported a study found that “relatives bereaved by natural death with high and sustained grief symptoms have increased mental health care use and mortality for up to 10 years after the loss.” The researchers “examined associations between grief symptom trajectories and four long-term health outcomes among relatives bereaved by natural death: contacts to general practice (GP) and mental health services, use of psychotropic prescription medication, and mortality over three to 10 years after bereavement.” They found that compared with relatives in the low grief trajectory (LGT), those in the high grief trajectory (HGT) “had a significantly higher yearly incidence of GP contacts until seven years after bereavement. Compared with the LGT, the HGT was associated with higher use of mental health services, antidepressants, sedatives and anxiolytics, and excess mortality.” The study was published in Frontiers in Public Health. (SOURCE: APA Headlines)