Grief and Bereavement Articles and Grief Research 

As a director of a bereavement center myself, I am very concerned about a friend. Her mother died about 4 years ago. Her father died about 8 months ago. Then, her son, as far as we know, died of an accidental overdose about one month after her father. The truth is it seems she never quite was able to adjust after the death of her mother. She was a devoted daughter to her parents. The following information comes to me by a mutual friend. Since her son's death she has become completely cut off from the world. She does not drive or leave the house. She is completely terrified of doing anything.

When my six-year-old son was in the hospital for a brain hemorrhage, a nurse sequestered my husband and I into a tomb-like conference room with a box of tissue paper, a pitcher of water, and crackers. I thought, This is where they put parents of dying children. Earlier, pacing the hall outside of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, my husband, Lee, had yelled, "Fuck!," hoisting his arms in the air and looking up at some invisible God. I imagine we looked like two inmates wandering a prison's corridor, trapped, afraid, and desperate to escape.

Mood varies from hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and healthy mood regulation involves choosing activities that help settle one's mood. However, in situations where personal choices of activities are constrained, such as during periods of social isolation and lockdown, this natural mood regulation is impaired which might result in depression. New research, published today in JAMA Psychiatry, from the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford suggests a new target for treating and reducing depression is supporting natural mood regulation.