Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) is a diagnostic entity now included in the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11) and soon to appear in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, text revision (DSM-5-TR). A characteristic feature of PGD is distressing, disabling yearning that persists a year or more after the loss. Other characteristic symptoms include disbelief and lack of acceptance of the loss, emotional detachment from others since the loss, loneliness, identity disturbance, and sense of meaninglessness. In this review, we detail psychiatric views on grief and their evolution over the twentieth century. We then discuss the development of diagnostic formulations for disordered grief, which culminated in PGD's status as a mental disorder in the DSM. After summarizing recent evidence that may suggest that PGD is linked to the neural reward system, we suggest further areas of research. In particular, we note the need for studies that extend the evidence base concerning PGD across cultural and sociodemographic boundaries and that investigate novel treatments. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, Volume 17 is May 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) is a debilitating condition affecting between 7% and 10% of bereaved individuals. Past imaging and psychological studies have proposed links between PGD's characteristic symptoms -in particular, profound yearning -and the neural reward system. We conducted a systematic review to investigate this connection. On December 19, 2019, we searched six bibliographic databases for data on the neurobiology of grief and disordered grief. We excluded studies of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, animal studies, and reviews. After abstract and full-text screening, twenty-four studies were included in the final review. We found diverse evidence for the activation of several reward-related regions of the brain in PGD. The data reviewed suggest that compared to normative grief, PGD involves a differential pattern of activity in the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC); likely differential activity in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), rostral or subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and basal ganglia overall, including the nucleus accumbens (NAc); and possible differential activity in the insula. It
Suicide among physicians is a longstanding problem, with risk factors exacerbated by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this article, we explore suicidal thoughts and behaviors among physicians and risk factors created or intensified by the work environment, such as overwork and loss of autonomy. We discuss the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has made the medical work environment more stressful (e.g. greater exposure to traumatic experiences and employment insecurity) and, consequently, elevated physician suicide risk. We also review evidence that the medical system in the United States has not adequately protected physicians' mental health. Lack of confidentiality, stigma, cost, and time, as well as intrusive medical licensing applications, remain barriers to physicians seeking help. Work pressures imposed by insurance companies and financial incentives to increase revenue while cutting costs compound physicians' work stress. We conclude that system-wide changes to the practice of medicine and policies regarding healthcare delivery are needed to improve physicians' work environments, as is research addressing the impact of the interventions to reduce their suicidal risk. The proposed changes, and greater access to timely and confidential mental health services amid and in the aftermath of the pandemic, may prove promising approaches to reduce physicians' suicide risk.
Macroscelidid afrotherians and canid carnivorans possess four premolar loci, the first of which is not replaced. Previous work suggests that the first premolar in macroscelidids is a retained deciduous tooth, but in Canis it is a successional tooth with no milk precursor. We tested this contrasting interpretation of first premolar homology with data from ontogenetic anatomy and with area predictions from the inhibitory cascade (IC) model. Our results based on anatomy support previous interpretations that the functional first premolar is a retained deciduous tooth (dp1) with no successor in macroscelidids, and a successional tooth (p1) with no precursor in Canis. Hyracoids are among the few placental mammals that show replacement at the first premolar locus and show less deviation than other taxa of actual from predicted areas across the deciduous and molar toothrow. However, predicted vs. actual tooth areas can depart substantially from one another. At least without a better means of representing tooth size, the inhibitory cascade does not help to distinguish the deciduous from successional first premolar. This observation does not rule out the possibility that factors such as a size-shift within the toothrow (e.g., carnivoran carnassials) help to explain deviations from the inhibitory cascade model.
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