No pets allowed: Evidence that prolonged grief disorder can occur following the death of a pet

Abstract

Background Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) is a psychiatric disorder in ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR that can only be diagnosed following the death of a person. Despite considerable evidence that people form strong attachments to their pets, and experience high levels of grief following their death, the current guidelines do not allow PGD to be diagnosed following the death of a pet. This study tested several hypotheses to determine if there is anything unique about grief that follows the death of a person versus grief that follows the death of a pet. Methods A nationally representative sample of adults from the United Kingdom (N=975) provided information about different bereavements, their most distressing bereavement, and ICD-11 PGD symptoms. Results One-third (32.6%) of respondents experienced the death of a beloved pet, and almost all had also experienced the death of a human; 21.0% of these people chose the death of their pet as most distressing. The conditional rate of PGD following the death of a pet was 7.5%, similar to many types of human losses. The relative risk of PGD following pet bereavement was 1.27, and pet loss accounted for 8.1% of all PGD cases in the population, both of which were higher than many types of human losses. Full measurement invariance for PGD symptoms was found between people who reported symptoms for a human bereavement and for a pet bereavement. Conclusions People can experience clinically significant levels of PGD following the death of a pet, and PGD symptoms manifest in the same way regardless of the species of the deceased. Implications associated with excluding diagnosis following pet bereavement are discussed.