Title: What the Loss of a Child Does to Parents, Psychologically and Biologically | Fatherly
Headings: What the Loss of a Child Does to Parents, Psychologically and Biologically
What the Loss of a Child Does to Parents, Psychologically and Biologically
Though parents mourning the death of a child experience classic psychological, biological, and social grief responses, there are unique challenges.
Biological Impacts: How the Death of a Child Changes a Parent’s Body
Psychological Impacts: How the Trauma of Child Loss Harms the Psyche
Predictors: How Age of the Child and Other Factors Impact the Trauma
Social Impacts: How the Loss of a Child Strengthens (Or Ruins) Families
Coping: How to Provide and Seek Comfort for Grieving Parents

Content: But when he reviewed bereaved parents’ self-reports — whether they felt they got sick often, or whether they expected their health to improve or decline — he found poorer perceptions of health. ADVERTISEMENT
As with all major grief responses, the mental health trauma of losing a child can kick off physical symptoms, including stomach pains, muscle cramps, headaches, and even irritable bowel syndrome. A handful of studies have found more tenuous links between unresolved grief and immune disorders, cancer, and long-term genetic changes at the cellular level. One surprising impact, often seen among parents mourning the loss of a child, is known as the broken-heart syndrome — a condition that presents oddly like a textbook heart attack. Symptoms include “crushing chest, pain, ST-segment elevation on electrocardiography, and elevated cardiac enzyme markers on lab results,” Fuller says, citing her previously written work on the subject. “ As a reaction to emotional or physical stress, the body’s natural response is to release catecholamines, also known as stress hormones, that temporarily stun the heart muscle.” Chronic stress can even impact how the brain functions, as long-term exposure to the stress hormone cortisol has been linked to the death of brain cells. And in a cruel twist of neurobiology, the regions of the brain responsible for grief processing, such as the posterior cingulate cortex, frontal cortex, and cerebellum, are also involved in regulating appetite and sleep. This may explain why grieving parents develop eating and sleeping disorders in the aftermath of the loss. “There are many, many studies that have looked at the ongoing health effects of high levels of chronic stress,” Saltz says. “