In a Danish RCT, trained physicians identified more cases of complicated grief and prescribed fewer psychotropic drugs than untrained control physicians¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2019 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Physicians who received grief support training identified more cases of complicated grief and prescribed fewer psychotropic drugs than physicians in the control group who received no training. → Sikstrom L 2019

Evidence¶

Sikstrom L 2019¶

Sikstrom L, Saikaly R, Ferguson G, Mosher PJ, Bonato S, Soklaridis S. (2019). Being there: A scoping review of grief support training in medical education. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224325

q3 · i? · review · r2

The review reports a randomized controlled trial of grief support training in Denmark (cited as reference 57, Guldin et al., bereavement care in general practice). Trained physicians "identified more cases of complicated grief and prescribed fewer psychotropic drugs" than untrained controls; no effect size is printed.

"A randomized controlled trial (RCT) of grief support training in Denmark found that physicians identified more cases of complicated grief and prescribed fewer psychotropic drugs than those in the control group who did not receive any training [57]."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Grief training outcomes were usually measured by immediate self-assessment showing increased knowledge and comfort, with few studies measuring patient care, physician well-being or longitudinal effects
• A US randomized controlled trial found significantly decreased burnout after physicians attended four modules on stress, grief and burnout in medicine
• In a Spanish RCT, widows whose family physician was trained in bereavement care experienced poorer emotional outcomes than widows in the control group — reports the opposite
• Grief training in medical education is most often delivered as short voluntary workshops focused on transmitting knowledge about death, dying and bereavement — related
• There is weak evidence to support one resilience intervention over another for physicians who have completed training — related