Spousal death represents a significant adaptive challenge to older bereaved adults. Older adults have increased mortality rates and higher suicide rates following the death of a spouse than age-matched controls. They also have an increased incidence of depressive symptomatology and somatic complaints, a higher incidence of substance abuse, more physical health problems and higher utilization of health care services. When a death is preceded by a chronic illness period, the disease and its treatment may intensify the strains experienced during terminal illness and increase the surviving spouse's risk for morbid bereavement outcomes. This presentation will examine the correlates of depressive distress in a sample of older married adults (aged 50-80) who are confronting their spouse's terminal illness. The analyses are drawn from an ongoing longitudinal investigation, based on in-depth interviews conducted by a mental health clinician with a socioeconomically diverse sample of spouses of older cancer patients from two major urban cancer centers. Multivariate analyses of the individual, situational and disease-related factors associated with the bereaved spouse's increased depressive symptomatology during the terminal illness period will be discussed. The consequences of a protracted illness, such as financial stress, neglect of one's own health, physical and psychological exhaustion from providing care, and social isolation due to the patient's illness may account for surviving spouses' poor post-death outcomes.
Learning Objectives: 1) Describe the risk of depressive distress in older bereaved spouses. 2) Prioritize the risk factors associated with depressive distress in older bereaved spouses. 3) Recognize the older bereaved spouses to target for supportive and preventive mental health services
Keywords: Mental Health, Aging
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.