Many people experienced difficulties grieving the death of a loved one during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main objective of this research was to examine the psychological manifestations of grief for people who experienced the death of a loved one between March 2020 and March 2022 in Panama. A sample of 110 participants completed an online survey including sociodemographic questions and psychological questionnaires. A subsample of twenty-six participants was interviewed about their experience of loss leading up to death, at the time of death, and after death. Results indicated that 43.6% of participants suffered from complicated grief (CG). Participants who experienced CG had more post-traumatic stress symptoms, somatic symptomatology, anxiety/insomnia, social dysfunction, severe depression, use of avoidant coping mechanisms, and more anxiety about the pandemic than participants who did not experience CG. A logistic regression analysis indicated that anxiety/insomnia symptoms, denial as a coping mechanism, and post-traumatic stress symptoms increased the likelihood of CG. For qualitative analyses, the most relevant themes that emerged were distress associated with contagion and illness, hospitalization and access to healthcare services, communication with medical staff, the impact of the news of death, inability to view the body, emotions following the loss, farewell rituals, and coping mechanisms.
Bósquez et al. (Wed,) studied this question.