A Biopsychosocial Approach to Grief, Depression, and the Role of Emotional Regulation

According to the field of affective neuroscience, grief has been identified as one of the seven primary emotions necessary for human survival. However, maladaptive grief could cause significant impairment in an individual’s life, leading to psychopathologies such as major depressive disorder. Research on grief has shifted to a biopsychosocial approach, leaving behind outdated models—such as the Kubler-Ross theory—that have shown poor consistency. The field of psychoneuroimmunology has identified adverse life events such as social loss as being associated with major depressive disorder, and inflammatory processes in chronic health conditions. Likewise, scientists in the field of affective neuroscience have theorized that prolonged and sustained activation of the grief neurological pathway can cause a cascade of neurotransmitters that inhibits the reward-seeking system, causing symptoms of depression. The objective of this review is to highlight findings on the grief process using a biopsychosocial approach to explore grief’s impact on psychopathophysiology.