Religious Identity and the Experience and Expression of Chronic Pain: A Review

The Spiritual Aspect of Pain: An Integrative Review

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience that affects individuals in various ways involving biological, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects. There is currently no comprehensive treatment that effectively addresses all aspects of pain. This integrative review aimed to analyze the spiritual aspect of pain relief. Following the specified methodological criteria, a total of 20 articles were selected. There evidenced a lack of spiritual care provided by healthcare professionals, even though its correlation with pain and its potential benefits have been widely demonstrated in the literature. Fortunately, some patients put into practice existential and religious tools to self-control and cope with their pain, although not always with a successful response.

Does Religiosity/Spirituality Play a Role in Function, Pain-Related Beliefs, and Coping in Patients with Chronic Pain? A Systematic Review

This systematic review examined the extent to which measures of religiosity/spirituality (R/S): (1) are associated with pain, function, pain-related beliefs (beliefs), coping responses, and catastrophizing in people with chronic pain; and (2) moderate the association between beliefs, coping and catastrophizing, and pain and function. Experimental and observational studies examining at least one of these research questions in adults with chronic pain were eligible. Two reviewers independently performed eligibility screening, data extraction, and quality assessment. Twenty studies were included. Most studies focused on the association between R/S and pain or function. When significant associations emerged, those between R/S and psychological function were weak to strong and positive; those between religious/spiritual well-being and pain and physical dysfunction were negative, but weak. Few studies examined the associations between R/S and beliefs/coping/catastrophizing; none examined the moderation role of R/S. The findings suggest that R/S is associated with pain and psychological function in people with chronic pain, and that viewing oneself as being "spiritual," regardless of religion, may contribute to positive psychological adjustment. More research is needed to determine the reliability of this finding. PROSPERO registry CRD42018088803.

Relation between Coping with Pain & Spiritual Wellbeing in Chronic Pain Living Individuals

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between coping with pain in individuals with chronic pain and their levels of spiritual wellbeing. The research was conducted as a cross-sectional study. It was conducted with 148 participants who were experiencing chronic pain. Data were collected using Sociodemographic Questionnaire, Pain Coping Questionnaire (PCQ) and Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS). Data were analyzed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov/Shapiro-Wilk's test, skewness, kurtosis, Cronbach's α, mean, standard deviation, mean rank and binary logistic regression analysis. According to the data obtained, it was concluded that participants' levels of spiritual wellbeing were high, and spiritual wellbeing could be used as an effective mechanism for coping with pain. It is therefore recommended that training sessions and information meetings be organized to create awareness in health care and social work professionals and in those living with chronic pain and their families.

The Role of Spirituality in Pain, Function, and Coping in Individuals with Chronic Pain

OBJECTIVE

Chronic pain is a multidimensional experience associated with psychosocial (e.g., pain-related beliefs and pain coping responses) and spiritual factors. Spirituality is a universal aspect of the human experience that has been hypothesized to impact pain experience via its effects on pain, physical/psychological function, resilience and pain-related beliefs, and pain coping responses. However, research evaluating the associations between measures of spirituality and measures of pain and function in individuals with chronic pain is limited. This study seeks to address this limitation.

METHODS

Participants were 62 Portuguese adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Participants completed measures of spirituality, pain intensity, physical and psychological function, and pain coping responses.

RESULTS

Spirituality as hope and a positive perspective toward life was positively and moderately associated with better psychological function and coping responses of ignoring pain sensations and coping self-statements. Spirituality as a search for meaning and sense of purpose was positively and moderately associated with the coping response of task persistence.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest the possibility that spirituality may be a useful resource for facilitating psychological adjustment, potentially promoting the use of some adaptive pain coping responses.

Association between the Religious Coping of Infertile People with their Own Quality of Life and Their Spouses': A Correlation Study in Iranian Infertile Couples

Background:

Infertile couples have a lower quality of life (QoL) than that of the general population. Religious coping strategies (RCOPE) could affect QoL in distressing situations. The present study aimed to assess the association between the RCOPE of infertile people with their own QoL and that of their spouses'.

Materials and Methods:

This cross-sectional study was conducted among 200 infertile couples referring to Infertility Center of Qom, Iran in 2015. The data was collected using three questionnaires including Brief RCOPE scale, Short Form Health Survey, and a demographic questionnaire. p value of ≤0.05 was considered as significant level.

Results:

Multivariate analysis showed relationship between wives' RCOPE-N with their own QoL (β = −1.31, p < 0.001). Further, in husbands, RCOPE-P showed significant positive relationship with their own QoL (β = 0.80, p = 0.002), and their RCOPE-N had significant negative relationship with it (β = −0.61, p = 0.02). Surprisingly, wives' RCOPE-P showed negative relationship with husbands' QoL (β = −0.62, p = 0.04); whereas their RCOPE-N had no significant relationship with their husbands' QoL. In addition, neither RCOPE-P nor RCOPE-N of husbands had a significant relationship with their wives' QoL.

Conclusions:

In summary, we could not find an obvious and significant relationship between RCOPE of each spouse with QoL of the other spouse in infertile couples. Hence, further investigations with more participants of various religions are recommended.