CBT Bests Supportive Counseling for Child and Teen Bereavement

Bereavement in children and teens can result in depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and functionally impairing complex prolonged grief reactions; all these increase risk for adult depression, anxiety, and criminal behavior. In a trial, researchers in the Netherlands randomized 134 children and adolescents (age range, 8–18; mean age, 13) to 9 sessions of grief-specific cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or supportive counseling. In most cases, a parent (71%) or grandparent (16%) had died; surviving parents of children in both groups received 5 counseling sessions.

Dropout was significantly less common in the CBT group (4% vs. 20%). Reliable improvement on a measure of grief (a 90-point scale, with >40 points indicating prolonge…