Grief over pet death can be as strong as that for family member, survey shows | Pets
Grief over the death of a pet could be as chronic as that of a human family member, research has shown, confirming what many people already know about their bond with their four-legged friends.
People grieving the loss of a pet may suffer from prolonged grief disorder (PGD), a mental health problem brought on by the death of a loved one, according to a survey published in the academic journal PLOS One.
PGD lasts for several months or even years, and often involves intense longing and despair, difficulty socializing and completing daily tasks, and feeling that a part of oneself has died.
Currently, only bereaved people can be diagnosed, but the professor who authored the study recommended that the guidelines be expanded to include pets as well.
The research – a survey of 975 adults in the UK – found that 7.5% of people who had lost a pet met the diagnostic criteria for PGD, roughly the same proportion of people who had a close friend die. It was only slightly lower than the proportion of people who had PGD after the death of a grandparent (8.3%), a sibling (8.9%) or even a partner (9.1%).
Only those who had lost parents or children suffered from the disease at significantly higher rates, at 11.2% and 21.3%.
About a fifth of people who experienced pet and human loss said the former was worse, despite previous studies finding that people often feel shame, embarrassment and isolation for expressing grief over a dead pet.
The study estimates that one in 12 cases of PGD in the UK was caused by the death of a pet, due to the fact that around half of adults have pets and the lifespan of these animals tends to be considerably shorter than that of humans.
Study author Philip Hyland, a psychology professor at Maynooth University in Ireland, said the research also showed that the symptoms of severe grief for a pet matched those of a human, and that there was no difference in how people experienced these losses.
He said the research presented “consistent and compelling evidence” that grief caused by a pet was no less legitimate, and he called for expanding guidelines for diagnosing PGD.
Hyland said diagnostic guidelines “do not allow for a diagnosis of PGD after the death of a pet, but these results demonstrate that people can experience clinically relevant levels of grief after the death of a pet, and at rates comparable to human losses considered ‘legitimate’ risk factors for PGD.”
He said if the research could be replicated, it would mean a person “can meet all the symptom and impairment requirements for PGD and still be ineligible for diagnosis solely because the deceased was not a member of the species homo sapiens.”
“From a psychological and evolutionary perspective, that would be an extremely difficult position to defend,” Hyland said. “The decision to exclude the loss of a pet from the bereavement criterion for PGD may be considered not only scientifically flawed, but also foolish.”
