ABSTRACT
People had the unfortunate experience of working with mourners who were so medicated at the time of funeral that they have little, if any, memory of the experience. These experiences have challenged them to work to educate both the medical and lay communities about the appropriate and inappropriate use of medication with mourners. Some people blame the physicians for the indiscriminent use of medication with bereaved people. Clinical experience suggests that mourners receive the initial supply of medication from well-meaning, but uninformed friends and family members. Reconciliation comes through the expression of thoughts and feelings, not through becoming abusive or dependent on drugs of any kind. Alcohol is the common form of self-medication for the bereaved. Perhaps the area where the most misdiagnosis and treatment occurs is with clinical depression and the use of antidepressant medication. The chemical action of these medications takes a long time to work and they will not relieve normal grief symptoms in non-clinically depressed person.
