Treating depressions of bereavement with antidepressants. A pilot study.

Seven of 10 bereaved, depressed spouses had moderate to marked improvement of depressive symptoms during a 4-week open trial of tricyclic antidepressants. Several considerations suggested that this was a response in large part to the pharmacologic intervention and not simply to a therapeutic relationship. The application of antidepressants to treatment of the persistent major depressive syndromes observed late in the course of bereavement should be studied in systematic, controlled studies with larger samples. This is an important clinical issue given the high risk of prolonged depressive syndromes in acutely bereaved spouses.