Substance Use Disorder Among Bereaved Individuals: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Substance use disorder (SUD) is related to several psychosocial factors, such as grief. This study aimed to find an association of SUD among bereaved individuals based on a systematic review. The research was registered in the PROSPERO platform and the following databases were used: MEDLINE, PsycNET, LILACS, PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, and SciELO. The Rayyan software tool was used and this study was performed under the guidelines of the PRISMA protocol. In total, 17 articles were eligible, of which more than 88% showed an association between SUD and the grieving process and almost 60% associated grief and drug use with depression and anxiety. Alcohol was the most used substance. These findings may contribute to future studies on grief and substance use and underlie the elaboration of preventive actions for drug use.