Complicated grief sometimes called Prolonged grief disorder refers to an attachment disorder: Based on DSM category, a diagnosis of "complicated grief" is appropriate for a relatively small group of individuals who meet the follwing criteria:

Criterion A - chronic and disruptive yearning, pining, and longing for the deceased

Criterion B - the person must have four (4) of the following eight (8) remaining symptoms at least several times a day or to a degree intense enough to be distressing and disruptive:

1. trouble accepting the death

2. inability to trust others

3. excessive bitterness or anger related to the death

4. uneasiness about moving on

5. numbness/detachment

6. feeling life is empty or meaningless without the deceased

7. envisions a bleak future

8. felling agitated

Criterion C - the above symptom disturbance must cause marked and persistent dysfunction in social, occupational, or other important domains.

Criterion D - the above symptom disturbance must last at least six (6) months.