Grief over the death of a pet can be as chronic as that for a human family member, according to a study published in the academic journal PLOS One. The research, which surveyed 975 adults in the UK, found that 7.5% of people who had lost a pet met the diagnostic criteria for prolonged grief disorder (PGD), a mental health condition characterised by intense longing, despair, and difficulty functioning.
This rate is comparable to the proportion of people who develop PGD after the death of a close friend (7.5%), and slightly lower than for a grandparent (8.3%), sibling (8.9%), or partner (9.1%). Only the loss of a parent (11.2%) or child (21.3%) resulted in significantly higher rates of PGD.
Currently, PGD can only be diagnosed following the death of a person, but the study's author, Professor Philip Hyland of Maynooth University in Ireland, has called for guidelines to be expanded to include pets. He noted that symptoms of severe grief for a pet matched identically with those for a human, and that about one in 12 cases of PGD in the UK may be attributable to pet loss.
Hyland described the findings as 'consistent and compelling evidence' that grief over a pet is no less legitimate. He argued that excluding pet loss from the bereavement criterion for PGD is 'scientifically misguided' and 'callous', as it could prevent people from receiving a diagnosis despite meeting all symptom and impairment requirements.
The study also found that about a fifth of people who had experienced both a pet and human loss said the former was worse, despite previous research indicating that people often feel shame or embarrassment for grieving a pet. Hyland emphasised that the results demonstrate clinically relevant levels of grief after pet death, at rates comparable to human losses considered legitimate risk factors for PGD.
