Objective: Investigating the concordance of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) criteria that have been recently introduced to the 5th text revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR) and the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11).
Method: N = 193 treatment-seeking bereaved adults were assessed with the prolonged grief disorder 13 + 9 interview. Data were examined in terms of (a) diagnostic rates for PGDDSM-5-TR and PGDICD-11, including increases of the PGDICD-11 accessory symptom threshold (PGDICD-11-X+) and time criterion (PGDICD-11-12 months), (b) dimensionality, (c) the frequency with which single PGD symptoms occur, and (d) concurrent validity in terms of psychological symptoms and loss-related characteristics.
Results: The diagnostic rate of PGDDSM-5-TR (52%) was significantly lower than that of PGDICD-11 (76%) and agreement between the two criteria sets was moderate, κ = 0.51, 95% CI [0.47-0.55]. Increasing the PGDICD-11 accessory symptom threshold did not improve the diagnostic agreement. In contrast, increasing the ICD-11 time criterion led to almost perfect agreement between PGDICD-11-12 months and PGDDSM-5-TR, κ = 0.91, 95% CI [0.89-0.93]. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicated a one-factor model fit best for both PGDDSM-5-TR and PGDICD-11. Emotional pain symptoms (e.g., guilt) were predominantly reported by patients with a PGDICD-11 diagnosis, while attachment disturbance symptoms (e.g., identity disruption) were reported more often by patients with a PGDDSM-5-TR diagnosis.
Conclusions: Despite methodological limitations of this study, results indicate discordance in PGDDSM-5-TR and PGDICD-11 regarding diagnostic rates and single symptom occurrence, while the factor structure is similar. Changes in the ICD-11 time criterion could reduce these differences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).