Maja O'Connor

Aarhus University | AU · Department of Psychology and Behavioral Science and Department of Clinical Medicine

Distinguishing patterns of grief over time in parents with a loss in pregnancy or during the neonatal period is important for identification of parents with severe grief symptoms, who may need additional support. Our aim was to describe grief in this population and to examine variations by type of loss in a large prospective cohort. We used questio...

Introduction: Symptoms of prolonged grief disorder (PGD), depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often emerge concurrently in bereavement. The understanding of temporal relationships between these syndromes in a general bereaved population is limited. This study aims to investigate temporal relationships between these syndromes from...

Background: Losing a parent or spouse in adulthood may results in Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) symptoms. PGD levels in parents may affect PGD levels in their adult offspring and the other way around. However, research on transmission of PGD in parent-child dyads is lacking. Consequently, we aimed to examine temporal associations between PGD level...

Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) is a newly recognized mental disorder in ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR. Several studies using exploratory factor analysis have found a unidimensional structure of the Prolonged Grief-13 (PG-13) measure of PGD. The recently published ICD-11 proposal proposes a distinction between two clusters of symptoms: Separation distress sym...

Introduction: Drug-related deaths (DRDs) are a major public health challenge. Losing a child to a DRD can be a very stressful life event, which places parents at risk of mental and physical health problems. However, traumatic experiences like losing a child to DRD can paradoxically also lead to positive psychological changes. A mixed-method approac...

There is growing interest in psychological factors maintaining healthy functioning following adverse events. One such variable is a sense of coherence (SOC), an orientation to life, comprising manageability, comprehensibility, and meaningfulness. Little research has examined the role of SOC in adjustment to bereavement. The present longitudinal stu...

Prolonged grief disorder is a debilitating condition, which affects approximately one out of ten who lose a loved one. While existing meta-analyses have synthesized evidence regarding the overall effect of psychological interventions for pathological grief across different types of psychotherapy, it remains clinically relevant to explore whether sp...

We live in a society that idealizes youth. Every day we are exposed to advertisements, social media, and TV programs casting the young. In our careers, social arenas, and health systems, we are encouraged to be fit, healthy, strong, slim, beautiful, efficient, exciting, quick, etc. These are all qualities that are pronounced in youth and decrease i...

The death of a loved one has been associated with a range of emotional and cognitive impacts, with up to 10% of the bereaved population experiencing a prolonged grief reaction. Direct investigation of the role of self-identity in the maintenance of grief symptoms is limited and has not discriminated between relationship type. This longitudinal stud...

Background A significant increase in the number of individuals suffering from prolonged grief disorder is expected in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic for two main reasons. First, the number of excess deaths has contributed to an immense number of bereaved individuals. Second, recent literature has shown that circumstances associated with COV...

Background Gender has been proposed as a potentially important predictor of bereavement outcomes. The majority of research in the field has explored this issue by examining gender differences in global grief severity. Findings have been mixed. In this study, we explore potential gender differences in grief using network analysis. This approach exam...

Background ‘Complicated grief reactions’ is an umbrella term covering symptoms of prolonged grief disorder (PGS) and other post-loss complications, including symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress (PTS). While PGS often co-occurs with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTS, no pooled prevalence estimates of their co-occurrence...

Background The present study investigates possible predictors of treatment response in an Internet-delivered Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (iMBCT) intervention with therapist support. This iMBCT program, a fully online delivered intervention with asynchronous therapist support, has previously been shown to be efficacious in reducing symptoms...

Background: Prolonged grief disorder (PGD), included in the ICD-11, encompasses a six-month duration criterion, but whether this covers ‘time since loss’ or ‘grief persistency’ is unclear. The study estimated prevalence and predictors of probable ICD-11 PGD using different applications of the duration criterion. Methods: A register-sampled cohort o...

Research suggests variation in how grief develops across time, and gender may account for some of this variation. However, gender differences in growth patterns of the newly codified ICD-11 prolonged grief disorder (PGD) are unknown. This study examined gender-specific variances in grief trajectories in a registry-sampled cohort of 857 spousal bere...

Objective: Internet-delivered interventions may alleviate distress in cancer survivors with limited access to psychological face-to-face treatment. In collaboration with a group of cancer survivors, we developed and tested the efficacy of a therapist-assisted internet-delivered mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (iMBCT) program for anxiety and de...

This cross-sectional survey compares the risk of mental health problems like poor well-being, complicated and prolonged grief, and mental disorders between young adults experiencing a divorced or non-divorced parent's death. 190 participants were recruited from Facebook via the Danish National Center for Grief. Well-being was measured using WHO-5,...

Tabet af en ægtefælle medfører ofte en smertelig sorgproces. Et væsentligt mindretal udvikler imidlertid symptomer på vedvarende sorglidelse (VSL). Dette kan være særligt hyppigt hos mennesker, der mister deres partner efter et langt og vanskeligt sygdomsforløb, som det ofte er tilfældet i specialiseret palliativ pleje. Nærværende projekt undersøgt...

Sorg har mange ansigter. Den er en menneskelig grundfølelse man ser på tværs af forskellige kulturer, fra de kollektive til de individualiserede. Sorg er kompleks. Den indeholder både lidelse og glæde, for sorg handler dybest set om kærlighed. Samtidig er det at miste en elsket person og den sorg, der følger med tabet, noget, langt de fleste af os...

Background: The present meta-analysis evaluates the efficacy of psychological interventions for grief in bereaved adults and explores the possible moderating influence of various study characteristics. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted by two reviewers who independently searched electronic databases, reviewed and selected eli...

Background and objectives: According to the Dual Process Model (DPM), shifting between loss-oriented (LO) and restoration-oriented (RO) coping is essential for adjustment following bereavement. Knowledge about how LO and RO coping change over time and how such changes are related to adjustment is missing. With a prospective design this study invest...

Background: A distinct grief-specific disorder is included in the ICD-11. Lack of clarity remains regarding whether different proposed diagnostic criteria capture similar or different diagnostic entities. Our aim was to examine the specificity of four proposed diagnostic criteria-sets for pathological grief in a population-based sample. Methods: Pa...

Sorg er en naturlig reaktion hos efterladte, som oplever et dødsfald af en naertståendeperson. Den første tid lige efter dødsfaldet kan føles uoverskuelig ogubaerligt smertefuld. I den akutte sorg kan intense følelsesmaessige, somatiske,kognitive, adfaerdsmaessige og eksistentielle reaktioner komme til udtryk. I etukompliceret sorgforløb vil disse...

Introduction After the death of a child during pregnancy, birth or in the neonatal period, parents often experience feelings of guilt, disenfranchisement, feelings of betrayal by one’s own body and envy of others. Such bereavement results in high rates of distress: psychologically, emotionally, physiologically and existentially. These data are coll...

Plain English summary The aim of this paper is to present our experiences from a shared working group (SWG) with patient representatives and researchers. The SWG collaborated on developing a psychosocial cancer rehabilitation intervention for women treated for breast cancer and men treated for prostate cancer and on the planning of an effect study...

Introduction: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy has been shown to reduce psychological distress in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but uptake and attendance rates of hospital-based, face-to-face mindfulness-based cognitive therapy are low. The present mixed-methods study evaluates the clinical feasibility of home-based, tele-delivered min...

Bereavement hallucinations (BHs) were assessed in 175 conjugally bereaved participants four years post loss, to explore whether BHs were: a) associated with psychological distress and b) predicted by sociodemographic variables, personality and/or coping style. Participants with BHs scored significantly higher than those without BHs on prolonged gri...

General Audience Summary Individuals who lose a close other may experience prolonged grief. Understanding the psychological processes involved in coping with grief is important to identify individuals in need of help and to develop interventions. Life story chapters are important periods in life stories, which support a coherent understanding of li...

A considerable proportion of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) entering pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) report psychological distress, which is often accompanied by poor physical health status. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has been shown to improve psychological and physical outcomes in other chronic diseases. W...

Background: The loss of a spouse is a major life event. Previous research found that centrality of the loss to one's identity using Centrality of Event Scale (CES) is related to complicated bereavement reactions, such as depression, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS), and prolonged grief symptoms (PGS). This study aims to examine loss-centrality...

Background It has been suggested that personality traits may influence patient-reported outcomes of breast reconstruction, but the research is limited. We investigated, in a prospective study, whether personality traits predict the achieved body image and quality of life (QoL) after breast reconstruction. Methods Patients planning to undergo breas...

Objective: To investigate the cost-effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) compared to a wait-list control group for pain in women treated for breast cancer. Methods: A total of 129 women were randomly allocated to MBCT or a wait-list control group. The primary outcome was the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) on...

Objectives: To investigate possible statistical mediators in a randomized controlled trial of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) on pain intensity in women treated for primary breast cancer. Methods: The sample consisted of 129 women treated for breast cancer, presenting with persistent pain, who were randomly assigned to MBCT or a wait-...

The narrative structure and episodic richness of self-generated past and future events were examined in patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD), eating disorder (ED), and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), respectively, and compared with a nonclinical control group. The 3 patient groups generated fewer events characterized b...

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was originally developed to prevent recurrent depression, but may also be of relevance for patient groups in the field of health psychology. The present paper gives a descriptive overview of clinical trials conducted at theUnit for Psychooncology and Health Psychology (EPoS) with the overall purpose of exe...

Background: Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) is a bereavement-specific syndrome expected to be included in the forthcoming ICD-11. Defining the prevalence of PGD will have important nosological, clinical, and therapeutic implications. The present systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to estimate the prevalence rate of PGD in the adult bereaved p...

Background: Mindfulness-based intervention has been found efficacious in reducing persistent pain in women treated for breast cancer. Little, however, is known about possible moderators of the effect. We explored clinical and psychological moderators of the effect on pain intensity previously found in a randomized controlled trial of mindfulness-ba...

BACKGROUND: Dyspnea is the reason most patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) seek medical attention. As lung function deteriorates, dyspnea becomes more intrusive, but the subjective experience of dyspnea may also be influenced by psychological distress. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to explore the association between psychological di...

Purpose: To assess the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) for late post-treatment pain in women treated for primary breast cancer. Methods: A randomized wait list-controlled trial was conducted with 129 women treated for breast cancer reporting post-treatment pain (score ≥ 3 on pain intensity or pain burden assessed with 10-p...

In this paper we describe and discuss communication skills training in Denmark - it has come a long way. After a short review of current research we outline the history of communication training in Denmark and describe the case of communication training at Aarhus University, which illustrates how the Danish universities have radically changed their...

This chapter focuses on post-traumatic stress reactions after being diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer. Post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are evident in a significant proportion of women after having experienced diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Several risk factors for developing long-term PTSS after breast cancer have been i...

Background: Patient-centered communication is a core competency in modern health care and associated with higher levels of patient satisfaction, improved patient health outcomes, and lower levels of burnout among physicians. The objective of the present study was to develop a questionnaire assessing medical student and physician self-efficacy in pa...

Background Patient-centered communication is a core competency in modern health care and associated with higher levels of patient satisfaction, improved patient health outcomes, and lower levels of burnout among physicians. The objective of the present study was to develop a questionnaire assessing medical student and physician self-efficacy in pat...

Mindfulness has been practiced in Eastern cultures for at least 2,500 years with the purpose of reducing human suffering and pain. This may be achieved through increased insight and clarity of mind achieved by strengthening a stable awareness and attention, emotional balance, and compassion toward oneself and others. In the late 1970s, Dr. Jon Kaba...

This chapter focuses on posttraumatic stress reactions after being diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer. Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are evident in a significant proportion of women after having experienced diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Several risk factors for developing long-term PTSS after breast cancer have been ide...

High levels of prolonged grief symptoms (PGS) and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS) are relatively common following bereavement. The two types of bereavement complications share some but not all of the same features. Little research has studied which of the two precedes the other following the death of a loved one. The purpose of this study was t...

We live in a society that idealizes youth. Every day we are exposed to advertisements, social media, and TV programs casting the young and beautiful. In our careers, social arenas, and health systems, we are encouraged to be fit, healthy, strong, slim, beautiful, efficient, exciting, quick, etc. These are all qualities that are more pronounced in y...

SUBMISSION Title: Mindfulness is negatively related to pain catastrophizing among women with chronic pain after breast cancer treatment Abstract No. 0557 Title Mindfulness is negatively related to pain catastrophizing among women with chronic pain after breast cancer treatment Background Persistent pain is prevalent among women treated for breast c...

We examined the effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on symptom severity of depression, complicated grief, posttraumatic stress, and working memory in elderly bereaved people with long-term bereavement-related distress. A non-randomized, controlled pilot design was used in a sample of elderly bereaved people (mean age = 77 years) w...

Background and aim: Patient-centered communication is a core competency in modern health care (1), which has been found associated with improved patient satisfaction and adherence to treatment as well and improved mental and physical health outcomes (2). The ability to engage in patient-centered behaviors has also been associated with physician wel...

The three-factor structure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) specified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, is not supported in the empirical literature. Two alternative four-factor models have received a wealth of empirical support. However, a consensus regarding which is superior has not been reached...

Recruitment of a large and reliable control group is a challenge in psychological survey based research. The effect of recruitment styles and age on response-rate, data quality, and individual differences were investigated in a control group for a postal survey of elderly bereaved people. This study was a direct reaction to the first recruitment at...

Bereavement is a condition which most people experience several times during their lives. A small but noteworthy proportion of bereaved individuals experience a syndrome of prolonged psychological distress in relation to bereavement. The aim of the study was to develop a clinical tool to identify bereaved individuals who had a prognosis of complica...

The literature shows considerable between-study variation in the prevalence of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) among women with breast cancer. Our aim was, therefore, to explore the prevalence of and risk factors for cancer-related PTSS in a nationwide inception cohort of women treated for primary breast cancer. In all, 68% of all Danish wome...

The aim of this study was to assess the factorial structure of complicated grief (CG) and investigate the relationship between CG and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) through the assessment of models combining both constructs. The questionnaire was completed by elderly, married respondents with a history of at least one significant, interperson...

Late life bereavement has been associated with psychological problems, mainly depression. A few studies indicated that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was an important issue in late life bereavement reactions. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of PTSD in recently bereaved older people compared with married controls and to investigate w...

Complicated grief reactions are relatively common following spousal bereavement. Old-age spousal loss qualifies as a possible traumatic stressor; however, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a possible complication of the loss has rarely been explored in this population. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of PTSD in elderly bereaved...

The aim of the present study was to examine the association between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and adult attachment in a young adult population. A sample of 328 Danish students (mean age 29.2 years) from four different schools of intermediate education level were studied by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ), the Revised Adult Attach...

The diagnostic criteria for PTSD have undergone several changes in the last two decades. This may in part explain the great variance in PTSD prevalence found in existing research. The objective of this study is to investigate the influence of different diagnostic criteria and different combinations of criteria on PTSD prevalence. A sample of 242 Da...

The diagnostic criteria for PTSD have undergone several changes in the last two decades. This may in part explain the great variance in PTSD prevalence found in existing research. The objective of this study is to investigate the influence of different diagnostic criteria and different combinations of criteria on PTSD prevalence. A sample of 242 Da...

The objectives of this study were to examine psychological sequalae of loss of a spouse in late life especially the occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and possible predictors of PTSD and symptom development. Fifty-four bereaved Danes (mean age 75 years) from five geographically different areas were studied by the Harvard Trauma Que...