Religiousness and spirituality in patients with bipolar disorder.

BACKGROUND: Religiousness and spirituality (R/S) are often neglected features among psychiatric patients but important both for quality of life and coping strategies for mental disorders. In patients affected by bipolar disorder (BD), R/S can sometimes be confused with symptoms related to the psychiatric disorder. This study aimed to perform a clinical review of the relationship between R/S and BD. METHODS: Data sources included Medline (OvidSP), CINAHL (Ebsco), EMBASE (Ovid), PsychINFO (Ebsco), Angeline, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Database of Abstract of Reviews of Effects, searching for pertinent Keywords: 'religiousness', 'spirituality' and 'bipolar disorder'. RESULTS: Nine works were found but only five used homogeneous samples with BD patients. R/S were important when facing symptoms and relapses in the lifeworld. These beliefs influenced the relationship with psychiatrists and spiritual figures of reference. CONCLUSIONS: R/S play a role as a psychosocial variable in the course of BD. However, the hypothesis that the R/S factor can be relevant both in terms of providing a protective effect as well as a provocative element in depressive or hypomanic phases was not fully supported at the moment.

Enfermar y enfermedades en psiquiatría / Illness and falling ill in psychiatry

La clínica psiquiátrica actual aspira a poseer referentes fisiopatológicos fundados y síntomas diana válidos y fiables de sus elementos clasificables y que llo sea la base de su teoría general del enfermar psiquiátrico. Sin embargo, existe confusión entre lo que significa y representa ello para la enfermedad y para el enfermar psiquiátrico, como constructos teóricos y sus repercusiones en la clínica. En este sentido se aborda, como una contribución a la teoría psiquiátrica, los hechos y valores que conllevan los términos enfermedad y enfermar psiquiátrico, teniendo en cuenta las vertientes objetivas y subjetivas de los mismos, las referencias sociales de la variabilidad sintomática y las modificaciones que ello produce en los órdenes taxonómicos y evaluativos

In current clinical psychiatry the aims is to have well founded physiopathological references and valid target symptoms with reliably classifiable elements on which to base a general theory of psychiatric illness. Nevertheless there is some confusion over the meaning and implication of this for psychiatric illness and the process of falling ill, in terms of theoretical constructs and their repercussions in clinical practice. As a contribution to psychitric theory, we tackle the facts and values bound up in the terms psychiatric illness and falling psychiatrically ill, bearing in mind both their objective and subjective aspects, the social references of variations in symptoms and the consequent modifications in taxonomy and evaluation