ABSTRACT
Drug-related death (DRD) bereavement delineates a rapidly evolving conceptual terrain yet features scarce empirical research and a lack of theoretical integration. Based on an overview of up-to-date DRD bereavement research, we make methodological suggestions concerning four key domains: (a) conceptualization of DRD; (b) grief processes and their key determinants such as cultural/societal variation, including outcomes; (c) the phenomenology of grief, including coping with bereavement; and (d) aspects of the bereaved’s informal and formal support, including their relational network and counselling and/or psychotherapeutic treatment. Our suggestions include proposals for various quantitative and qualitative research designs and methods, depending on research aims and epistemological preferences, and a note on ethics. Overall, we argue for the need to advance DRD bereavement research by means of theoretical integration and attunement between research aims, methodological choices and epistemological underpinnings.
