Spiritual Beliefs and Religious Practices among Persons with Schizophrenia in Rural Community.

Abstract

Given spirituality of persons with schizophrenia in rural community is rarely studied, the aim of the study was to explore the relation between spiritual beliefs or religious practices and outcome of persons with schizophrenia in rural China. A 10-year follow-up investigation among a 1994 cohort (n=510) of patients with schizophrenia, who met ICD-10 criteria, was conducted in Xinjin, Chengdu, China(1). Five hundred patients (98.0%) and their informants were followed up in 2004 using Patients Follow-up Scale (PFS). Among the 500 patients, 109 subjects (21.8%) once participated in various religious practices and 82 subjects (16.4%) believed in afterlife during the follow-up period. Females were significantly more likely to take part in religious practices and believe in afterlife (31.8%, 23.6%) than males (10.3%, 8.2%) (p<0.001). Single patients (4.6%) were less likely to participate in religious practices than married patients (25.5%) (p<0.001). There were no relations between religious practices and antipsychotic medication or hospitalization (p>0.05). Patients who participated in various religious practices were more likely to believe in afterlife (50.5%) than those who did not participate in religious practices (6.9%) (p<0.001). Patients who believed in afterlife had significantly more suicide attempts (23.2%) than those who did not believe in afterlife (12.2%) (p<0.01). The results of this study indicate that religious practices are relative common in persons with schizophrenia in rural community. Spiritual beliefs may influence the patient’s suicidal behavior. The spiritual factors of mental disorders should be taken into account in developing mental health interventions. Acknowledgments This work was supported in part by China Medical Board in NewYork (CMB, 92-557) and NIH/FIC 1 R01 TW007260-01 (M.S. Ran, PI). References 1. Ran MS, Chan CLW, Chen EYH, Xiang MZ, Caine ED, Conwell Y. Homelessness among patients with schizophrenia in rural China: A 10-year cohort study. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2006; 114: 118-123.