Grief Symptoms Promote Inflammation During Acute Stress Among Bereaved Spouses

Authors

Ryan L Brown
Angie S LeRoy
Michelle A Chen
Robert Suchting
Lisa M Jaremka
Jia Liu
Cobi Heijnen
Christopher P Fagundes

Publication Date

6-1-2022

Journal

Psychological Science

Abstract

The death of a spouse is associated with maladaptive immune alterations; grief severity may exacerbate this link. We investigated whether high grief symptoms were associated with an amplified inflammatory response to subsequent stress among 111 recently bereaved older adults. Participants completed a standardized psychological stressor and underwent a blood draw before, 45 min after, and 2 hr after the stressor. Those experiencing high grief symptoms (i.e., scoring > 25 on the Inventory of Complicated Grief) experienced a 45% increase in interleukin-6 (IL-6; a proinflammatory cytokine) per hour, whereas those experiencing low grief symptoms demonstrated a 26% increase. In other words, high grief was related to a 19% increase in IL-6 per hour relative to low grief. The grief levels of recently bereaved people were associated with the rate of change in IL-6 following a subsequent stressor, above and beyond depressive symptoms. This is the first study to demonstrate that high grief symptoms promote inflammation following acute stress.

Keywords

Aged, Bereavement, Grief, Humans, Inflammation, Interleukin-6, Spouses, aging, bereavement, death and dying, depression, grief, health, stress reactions

DOI

10.1177/09567976211059502

PMID

35675903

PMCID

PMC9343888

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

6-8-2022

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes