If You Participate in the HEAL Study
If you are interested in participating in the HEAL Study, someone from our site or from the site nearest to where you live will talk with you over the phone and ask you questions about yourself and your grief. If the study seems like a good fit for you, you will be invited to the clinic for a more extensive interview and a medical evaluation to determine your eligibility for participation. This also provides an opportunity for you to meet us and learn about what it is like to participate in treatment research. If you are not eligible, or if you decide you don’t want to participate, we will help you find an appropriate referral.
If you are eligible for the study and want to participate, you will receive either citalopram or a placebo (sugar pill). All treatments include taking a pill. There is a 50% chance that the pill will be medication (citalopram) and a 50% chance that it will be a placebo (sugar pill). You will be assigned to a study doctor who will prescribe the pills. Neither you nor your doctor will know whether you are getting citalopram or the sugar pill. The doctor will follow your symptoms and your side effects. You also have a 50% chance of receiving weekly one-on-one talk therapy in addition to the pill.
Altogether you have an equal chance (25%) of being assigned to each of the four treatments: 1) citalopram and visits with a study doctor; 2) sugar pill and visits with a study doctor; 3) citalopram, visits with a study doctor, and weekly talk therapy with complicated grief treatment; or 4) sugar pill, visits with a study doctor, and weekly talk therapy with complicated grief treatment.
