Dr. Adams
08-12-2006, 08:24 AM
Faith-based, positive religious resources can help patients recover from cardiac surgery...enhanced hope and perceived social support can protect psychological well-being during stressful procedures and experiences, whereas having negative religious thoughts and struggles may hinder recovery.
"This positive effect was manifest through enhanced hope and perceived social support prior to stressful experiences, such as cardiac surgery. Having negative thoughts and faith-based struggles, which are not limited to patients with a religious faith, were related to poor postoperative recovery.... religiousness probably led to positive religious coping, which in turn led to less psychological distress...As Jung once noted, scientists may have nothing to say about God or creation, yet faith-related phenomena (atheist or theist), as important aspects of human experiences, must be better understood through scientific evidence...acts of positive religious coping were defined as religious forgiveness, seeking spiritual support, collaborative religious coping or fellowship with others who share the same beliefs, spiritual connection, religious purification, and thoughts of religious benevolence. Negative coping styles included spiritual discontent, thoughts of punishing God, insecurity, demonic thoughts, interpersonal religious discontent, religious doubt, and discontented spiritual relations.
Positive religious coping styles had positive effects on both hope and social support, whereas negative styles were inversely related to social support. Perceived social support and hope contributed to less depression and anxiety for postoperative patients who used positive religious coping styles. Negative, but not positive, religious coping styles were also directly related to postoperative distress. Religiousness contributed only to positive, and not to negative, religious coping styles, but there was no direct effect of religiousness on social support, hope, or postoperative distress.
Besides being related to poor postoperative recovery, the negative effect of religious doubts was also manifest through hopelessness and lower levels of perceived social support before stressful experiences such as cardiac surgery...having religious struggles, linked to poor mental health, predicted mortality.
Hope and social support are concepts acceptable to professionals and patients with various belief systems. Faith distinguishes humans from animals and may contribute profound meaning to a patient's life. Through addressing these concerns, professionals may establish a more effective relationship with patients and can help motivate them in coping with disease-related distress....patients' faith can touch a deeper level of their concerns, in contrast to simple manipulation of behavior patterns and regulation of negative emotions and expectations. Findings of this study suggest that integrating faith into mainstream psychology and health research may lead the way to better clinical evaluation and to develop more effective mind-body interventions in the future."
"This positive effect was manifest through enhanced hope and perceived social support prior to stressful experiences, such as cardiac surgery. Having negative thoughts and faith-based struggles, which are not limited to patients with a religious faith, were related to poor postoperative recovery.... religiousness probably led to positive religious coping, which in turn led to less psychological distress...As Jung once noted, scientists may have nothing to say about God or creation, yet faith-related phenomena (atheist or theist), as important aspects of human experiences, must be better understood through scientific evidence...acts of positive religious coping were defined as religious forgiveness, seeking spiritual support, collaborative religious coping or fellowship with others who share the same beliefs, spiritual connection, religious purification, and thoughts of religious benevolence. Negative coping styles included spiritual discontent, thoughts of punishing God, insecurity, demonic thoughts, interpersonal religious discontent, religious doubt, and discontented spiritual relations.
Positive religious coping styles had positive effects on both hope and social support, whereas negative styles were inversely related to social support. Perceived social support and hope contributed to less depression and anxiety for postoperative patients who used positive religious coping styles. Negative, but not positive, religious coping styles were also directly related to postoperative distress. Religiousness contributed only to positive, and not to negative, religious coping styles, but there was no direct effect of religiousness on social support, hope, or postoperative distress.
Besides being related to poor postoperative recovery, the negative effect of religious doubts was also manifest through hopelessness and lower levels of perceived social support before stressful experiences such as cardiac surgery...having religious struggles, linked to poor mental health, predicted mortality.
Hope and social support are concepts acceptable to professionals and patients with various belief systems. Faith distinguishes humans from animals and may contribute profound meaning to a patient's life. Through addressing these concerns, professionals may establish a more effective relationship with patients and can help motivate them in coping with disease-related distress....patients' faith can touch a deeper level of their concerns, in contrast to simple manipulation of behavior patterns and regulation of negative emotions and expectations. Findings of this study suggest that integrating faith into mainstream psychology and health research may lead the way to better clinical evaluation and to develop more effective mind-body interventions in the future."