Alternative medicine as a coping strategy for people with epilepsy: can exercise of religion and spirituality be part of this context?

The Spiritism as therapy in the health care in the epilepsy

OBJECTIVE

to present a brief history of Spiritism, the vision of epilepsy by Spiritism, and the potential of spirituality and religiosity care as complementary and coadjutants treatments in epilepsy.

METHOD

this is a brief review about the impact of faith, spirituality, and religiosity, particularly the Spiritism philosophy as complementary treatment to neurological disorders (particularly focusing on epilepsy) and mental health. We conduct a review of published articles (about religion/spirituality and epilepsy) in the Pubmed and SciELO databases.

CONCLUSION

the exercise of spirituality and religiosity can be a positive coping strategy to support the traditional therapy of patients with epilepsy and other neurological disorders. However, it is necessary to demystify myths and beliefs about the epilepsy and improve knowledge about this important health dimension among professionals, patients, and caregivers to explore their full treatment and supportive potential.