Evaluation of religious/spiritual complementary therapy in mental health

• Autor(a) principal: Gonçalves, Juliane
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Lucchetti, Giancarl, Leão, Frederico C., Menezes, Paulo R., Vallada, Homero
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Debates em Psiquiatria (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revistardp.org.br/revista/article/view/152
• topic: Espiritualidade; religião e medicina; terapia complementar; ensaios clínicos randomizados; Spirituality; religion and medicine; complementary therapy; randomized clinical trials

Several studies have been published on the impact of religious and spiritual beliefs and practi ces on mental health. Based on the evidence available, strategies have been proposed to sti mulate the spiritual dimension of pati ents, focusing primarily on coping with diff erent diseases. However, few studies have assessed the possible eff ects and mechanisms of acti on of religious/spiritual interventi ons (RSIs) through randomized clinical trials. According to the literature, RSIs have obtained similar or bett er results than other complementary treatment approaches, including reducti on of anxiety and stress symptoms, decrease in drug use, a lower degree of emoti onal exhausti on in health professionals, and a tendency to less depressive symptoms. Because interventi ons can be very heterogeneous, there has been a discussion about standardizing the contents of RSIs, in an att empt to make both the training of facilitators and the materials off ered to pati ents more uniform. Also, it is possible to observe an increased att enti on to the methodological design of this type of interventi on, with studies showing more robust methodologies. The search for and assessment of these new interventi onscan help in the development of more integrative strategies and facilitate complementary treatment in mental health.