Hospice news

Abstract

A recent study published in the British Medical Journal adds to the literature indicating that people with strong spiritual beliefs recover from the death of loved ones more quickly and completely than nonbelievers. Says study author Michael King of the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London, “spiritual beliefs—regardless of religious practice—appear to assist recovery from bereavement. We are not saying, however, that spiritual beliefs have a utility in the same way as diet or exercise in health promotion . . . (or) that palliative care professionals should help people to be more spiritual,” he added. “We are merely saying that spiritual beliefs appear to play a role in how people grieve and therefore should be taken into account in their overall care.” King and colleagues investigated the effect of spiritual beliefs on the outcome of bereavement in a prospective study of 129 relatives and close friends of patients with a terminal illness. Overall, 43 percent of the study group said they had strong religious beliefs, 41 percent said they had some religious beliefs, and the remaining 16 percent had no religious beliefs. Among the 95 individuals who participated in follow-up assessments, those with strong spiritual beliefs steadily recovered from their bereavement and reported progressively less grief at one-month, nine-month, and 14-month follow-ups. Those with some spiritual beliefs reported little change in their bereavement until after the nine-month follow-up, at which time they experienced rapid recovery. Nonbelievers, on the other hand, reported a brief improvement in their bereavement between the one-month and the nine-month follow-ups, but subsequently experienced a renewed intensity of their grief that was still evident at the 14-month assessment. Researchers stress that reasons behind the positive effect of strong spiritual beliefs are unknown. It may be that people with strong spiritual beliefs “take a longer or different view of life and what it means, and consider life after death. But having a spiritual belief is not the same as believing in life after death,” says King. On the other hand, “perhaps it is a cognitive style that is adaptive and protects against prolonged grief and depression.” (Source: British Medical Journal. 2002; 324: 1551-1554.)