ABSTRACT
The advent of the Nursing Consortium for Research on Chronic Sorrow (NCRCS) has sparked continuing serious inquiry and theory building. Evaluation of the effects of treatment would be based on rationales for selection of interventions and would most often include psychotherapy modalities, supports, and psychotropic medications. As clinicians become more enlightened, the findings of studies that were not designed to address chronic sorrow may be subject to reinterpretation. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the DEP5 measured depressive reactions as distinct from other parent and family problems. Burke's Chronic Sorrow Questionnaire, developed for use in face-to-face interviews with mothers of school-age children with myelomeningocele disabilities, was based on a review of the literature on chronic sorrow. Symptom checklists might also be devised for quick measures that can supplement other dependent variables. Research that includes openness to findings of such positives as strength, satisfaction, pleasure, humor, philosophical maturity, realistic perspective, and so on, will contribute to balance.
