End of Life Care / 31.01.2025

  Knowing the right way to support a grieving colleague, friend, or relative can be quite hard. You might be afraid to make a mistake, so sometimes, people don't just speak, leaving the bereaved individuals feeling alone and isolated. If you have not experienced loss, you might not have a realistic expectation of how the bereaved feel or when they can go back to their normal daily activity or move on. In this blog, we will explore how you can support a grieving person. 

Reach out

Calling to express your sympathy is an excellent way of supporting grieving individuals. However, don't say phrases such as ‘’it is for the best’ or ‘it is God’s will’ unless said by the bereaved. Your relative or friend might need you more even after the first few weeks and months when others have stopped calling. Check in frequently and say hello. Many people going through grief find it hard to reach out, so you need to take the initiative.  (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Legal-Malpractice, Mental Health Research / 11.09.2024

  car-accident-legal-candle.jpg   Losing a loved one is one of life’s most profound sorrows, and when that loss is due to a wrongful death in a car accident, the pain can feel unbearable. In the wake of such a tragedy, emotions run high, and the path forward may seem overwhelming. You may be grappling with feelings of anger, confusion, and heartbreak, all while trying to navigate the complex legal landscape that follows a fatal accident. In these difficult moments, it’s crucial to remember that you are not alone. Many have faced similar heart-wrenching situations, and there are steps you can take to honor your loved one’s memory while seeking justice. Depending on the nature of the accident, services like Biohazard Cleaning in Knoxville may be necessary, ensuring the scene is properly handled. This blog post aims to provide compassionate guidance on how to handle the aftermath of a wrongful death in a car accident. From understanding your legal rights to finding the support you need, we’ll explore the resources available to help you through this challenging time. Together, let’s take a step toward healing and justice for those we have lost too soon.

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Author Interviews, Melanoma, Psychological Science / 05.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Sinead Langan. FRCP MSc PhD Professor of Clinical Epidemiology Wellcome Senior Clinical Fellow Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine London, U.K. MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Psychological stress is commonly cited as a risk factor for melanoma, but clinical evidence is limited. We wanted to test the hypothesis that acute severe stress increases the risk of melanoma and melanoma progression. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Psychological Science / 11.02.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Geoffrey Tofler MBBS MB FRACP FACC Professor of Preventative Cardiology, University of Sydney Senior Staff Cardiologist, Royal North Shore Hospital New South Wales, Australia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Bereavement due to the death of a loved one is one of the most stressful experiences to which almost every human is exposed. Grief is an unavoidable and natural reaction to the loss.  While in most people the grief reaction gradually diminishes, an increased risk of heart attack or has been described in the early weeks and months following bereavement.   Although this increase in heart attacks is well recognised, until now there have not been any previous studies to provide guidance on how to safely reduce the risk. (more…)
Author Interviews, Gender Differences, Psychological Science / 15.05.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Wai-Man (Raymond) Liu, PhDAssociate ProfessorResearch School of Finance, Actuarial Studies & StatisticsCollege of Business & Economics BuildingThe Australian National UniversityProf. Wai-Man (Raymond) Liu, PhD Associate Professor Research School of Finance, Actuarial Studies & Statistics College of Business & Economics Building The Australian National University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: In our study, we studied survey responses of over 26,000 people from the largest Australian household survey over a period of 14 years. The survey was funded by the government called “The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey”. The survey was conducted by the Melbourne Institute. In the survey more than 9,500 of these respondents had experienced the death of a close friend. (more…)
Author Interviews, Gender Differences, Mental Health Research, OBGYNE, Psychological Science / 20.03.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with Haley Kranstuber Horstman, Ph.D. Department of Communication University of Missouri MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Miscarriage is a prevalent health concern, with one in five pregnancies ending in miscarriage, which is a pregnancy loss before 20 weeks’ gestation. Past research has shown that women who have miscarried often suffer mental health effects such as heightened grief, depression, loneliness, and suicidality. Although much of the research on coping with miscarriage has focused on women’s health, many miscarriages occur within romantic relationships and affect the non-miscarrying partner as well. Women in heterosexual marriages report that their husband is often their top support-provider. Past research has shown that husbands suffer with mental health effects after a miscarriage, sometimes for even longer than their wives, but are not often supported in their grief because miscarriage is a “woman’s issue” and they feel uncomfortable talking about it. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Mental Health Research, Pediatrics / 25.04.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Yongfu Yu, PhD Department of Clinical Epidemiology Aarhus University Hospital Aarhus, Denmark MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Bereavement by the death of a close relative is ranked as one of the most severe life events and it is likely to cause psychological stress regardless of coping mechanisms. An increased risk of mortality and adverse health outcomes has been observed among the bereaved spouses, parents, and children. It is estimated that nearly 8% of individuals in the US experienced a sibling death in childhood but much less is known about its health consequences. Sibling relationship tends to be the longest and the most intimate in family thus the death of a sibling can be a devastating life event, especially when this event happens at early ages. However, to our knowledge, no study has investigated the effects of sibling death in childhood on subsequent mortality in bereaved siblings with a long follow-up time. (more…)
Author Interviews, Lancet, Mental Health Research / 13.05.2014

Dr Alexandra Pitman MBBS MRC Psych MRC Clinical Research Fellow, UCL Division of Psychiatry, UCL (University College LondonMedicalResearch.com interview with: Dr Alexandra Pitman MBBS MRC Psych MRC Clinical Research Fellow, UCL Division of Psychiatry, UCL (University College London MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: We conducted a systematic review of all published research comparing the experience of suicide bereavement with bereavement due to other causes, in which we considered the evidence from 57 studies evaluating the effect of bereavement on death, mental health, and social functioning of family members, friends, and other close contacts of the deceased. These studies showed that parents and children bereaved by suicide were at higher risk of mental health problems after the loss than parents and children bereaved by other causes, and that spouses and mothers bereaved by suicide were at higher risk of suicide than spouses and mothers bereaved by other causes. We also found some evidence that people from a range of kinship groups bereaved by suicide report more rejection and shame than people bereaved by other violent deaths, and that feeling stigmatised by the death is commonly experienced after any violent bereavement. It seemed that people bereaved by violent deaths, for example due to accidental death, homicide, drug-related death, motor vehicle crash, undetermined death or suicide, shared a sense of feeling blamed for the death or tainted by their association with the deceased. (more…)