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. 2023 Feb 23:14:1085944.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1085944. eCollection 2023.

The psychological consequences of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) for the family system: A systematic review

Gabriella Gandino  1   2 , Alessia Diecidue  1 , Annalisa Sensi  1   2 , Ester Maria Venera  1 , Sarah Finzi  1 , Cristina Civilotti  1 , Fabio Veglia  1 , Giulia Di Fini  1
Affiliations

The psychological consequences of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) for the family system: A systematic review

Gabriella Gandino et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

The Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a tragic and difficult experience for families. It involves not only the death of the baby but also the loss of a future as a parent, sibling or grandparent. The subsequent grief is multifaceted and each family member has different needs and resources. Through a systematic review of literature, we identified 24 studies between 1982 and 2021: they dealt with individual, family and couple experience when a SIDS occurs; in addition, some studies compared perinatal loss and neonatal loss with SIDS loss. Our results point out the need for an intervention that focuses on the needs of each family member and tailored around the specifics of SIDS loss rather than general grief.

Keywords: couple grief; family grief; individual grief; psychological impact; sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS); systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
PRISMA flow diagram for literature search.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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