Losing a loved one is always difficult but losing a twin may be particularly so. By virtue of being the same age, twins share many common experiences and may have strong emotional bonds. The new study suggests those who lose a co-twin may require extra support in both the short and longer term.
“Losing a co-twin by death may be a particularly devastating life stressor with considerable health implications for surviving twins, yet there have been few studies on this type of bereavement,” says lead author Huan Song, a senior researcher at West China Hospital, Sichuan University, China, and also at the University of Iceland and Karolinska Institute, Sweden.
