When grief symptoms do not fade over time, a person may be suffering from what psychologists call "complicated grief."

Shear and colleagues found an effective treatment for complicated grief, by treating the reactions in the same way as trauma reactions.

An important part of understanding complicated grief is understanding how the symptoms differ from normal grief.

When the reaction turns into complicated grief, however, the feelings of loss become incapacitating and continue even though time passes.

Although no consensus has been reached, diagnostic criteria for complicated grief have been proposed.

Results revealed the following variables associated with higher levels of predeath complicated grief:

In the introductory phase, therapists described the distinctions between normal and complicated grief.

Some mental health professionals have questioned whether complicated grief exists.

Empirical studies have been attempting to convincingly establish the incremental validity of complicated grief.

In 2007, George Bonanno and colleagues published a paper describing a study that supports the incremental validity of complicated grief.