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Grief diagnosis

The death of someone usually results in grieving by family and friends - which if the deceased was someone close, may go on for some time.

A question now under consideration in America is whether 2 months of grieving qualifies someone as being depressed.

Australia's ABC's Radio National Breakfast program takes up the issue:
"It is clear that a period of prolonged grief could turn into depression. But should the two conditions be diagnosed and treated in the same way? Next year the American Psychiatric Association will publish a new diagnostic and statistical manual, and a debate has broken out over whether grief should be included in the definition of depression."


Go here to hear an interview with Dr Allen Frances - Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University, and Chair of the task force overseeing the compilation of the new diagnostic manual.












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