2 - (SYM 49) Bereavement Related Mental Health Outcomes in a National Sample of Traumatic Loss Survivors

Traumatic deaths resulting from injuries and violence can include both unintentional (e.g., motor vehicle crashes and traffic-related injuries, drug-related poisoning and overdoses) and intentional injury-related deaths (e.g., homicide, suicide; World Health Organization, 2024) and often have lasting and profound impacts on the health and well-being of families and communities affected by these losses. This study examines the prevalence and correlates of bereavement-related mental health problems including PTSD, depression, prolonged grief disorder (PGD) in a US national sample of 1000 traumatic loss survivors (motor vehicle crashes=251, suicide-254, homicide=256, drug-related overdoses=254). Rates of PTSD for each group ranged from 35.5- 45.5%. Rates of MDD for each group ranged from 33.1%- 39.0%. In terms of PGD, rates for each group ranged from 21.5%- 27.2%. High rates of comorbidity were noted and will be described. To explore whether type of loss experienced is uniquely associated with the severity of bereavement-related mental health symptoms above and beyond other individual and death-related characteristics, a series of GLMs were tested. After accounting for variance due to demographic and death-related factors, a statistically significant main effect was found for type of loss on PTSD symptom severity, Wald = 10.10, p = .018, where homicide loss was uniquely associated with more severe PTSD symptoms. A statistically significant main effect was also found for type of loss on depression symptom severity, Wald = 8.03, p = .045, where overdose loss was uniquely associated with more severe depression symptoms after accounting for demographic and death-related factors. No statistically significant main effect was found for type of loss on PGD symptom severity, Wald = 5.05, p = .168. Discussion of findings in the context of intervention approaches will be highlighted.