Grief, bereavement and adjustment disorder in children — OSCE

Noah is a nine-year-old boy brought by his father, Sam, fourteen months after his mother died suddenly at home. Sam reports that Noah still talks about little else, refuses to enter the room where she died, says "I don't know who I am anymore," and has stopped seeing his friends and dropped behind at school. Sam is exhausted, his own grief still raw, and asks whether the GP can "start something to help him move on," because a relative suggested an antidepressant. During the assessment Noah becomes tearful and tells you quietly that sometimes he thinks he "should have stopped it," and that he wonders whether it would be easier if he "wasn't here."