Rebuilding Consensus on Valid Criteria for Disordered Grief.

Overview In 2009, following the completion of a National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Mental Health– funded investigation of consensus criteria for disordered grief, we published validated criteria for a new diagnosticentity,prolongedgriefdisorder (PGD).1Based on the results of this field trial, the Yale Bereavement Study (YBS), we proposed PGD’s inclusion in theDSM5 and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Eleventh Revision (ICD-11). The strengthof theevidence in support ofPGD from the YBS, supplemented by confirmatory findings frommultiple international studies, compelledboth the DSM and ICD to include a new grief disorder. The formulations of the DSM and the ICD of diagnosticcriteria foragriefdisorderagreewithPGDcriteria.2 Theyalso share thepsychometric propertiesofPGD.By contrast, complicated grief (CG) criteria3 do not agree with DSM and ICD criteria, use abstruse syntax, produce more false-positive than true-positive diagnoses, and lack predictive validity.2 Evidence supports the validityofPGD1and itsDSMand ICDderivatives2butweighs against the validity of CG.2 Prolonged grief disorder meetsestablishedcriteria for amental disorder,4butCG doesnot.Basedonexistingevidence,PGDcriteriashould be the standard for diagnosing disordered grief.