Views of Catholic Priests Regarding Causes, Treatments and Psychosocial Consequences of Schizophrenia and Depression: A
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Views of Catholic Priests Regarding Causes, Treatments and Psychosocial Consequences of Schizophrenia and Depression: A Comparative Study in Italy Lorenza Magliano1 · Giulia Citarelli1 · Gaetana Affuso1 Accepted: 17 November 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract This study explored views of Catholic priests about schizophrenia and depression in Italy. Participants completed a questionnaire on their views about either schizophrenia (N = 282) or depression (N = 277). The depression group was surer than the schizophrenia group that: the disorder was due to psychosocial causes; curable; non-requiring long-term pharmacotherapy; the persons with depression could participate in religious activities. The older priests were more convinced than the younger priests that: the prayer and long-term pharmacotherapy are useful; the persons with mental disorders had affective difficulties, are recognizable and kept at distance. Priests should receive education on stigma in mental disorders, particularly schizophrenia. Keywords Schizophrenia · Depression · Religion · Priests · Causal beliefs · Attitudes · Stigma
Introduction Worldwide, around five billions of people adhere to a religion, mostly Christianity (2.2 billions) and Islam (1.6 billion; Hackett 2011). Like any member of society, some of these believers may suffer from a mental disorder (MD). Research reveals that persons with MDs mostly consider religion to be helpful in dealing with their own mental health problems (Koenig 2009; Mohr et al. 2012; Weber and Pargament 2014). In a US survey of 406 persons with long-term MDs, 80% of the sample used religion to cope with their symptoms (Tepper et al. 2001). In another US study of 157 persons with severe MDs, 50% valued religious practice as useful for their mental status and as an alternative therapy to medical treatments (Russinova et al. * Lorenza Magliano [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Viale Ellittico 31, 81100 Caserta, Italy
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Journal of Religion and Health
2002). In a study on 276 people with schizophrenia in Switzerland, Canada and North Carolina (USA), 87% of participants acknowledged the beneficial effects of religion on their mental health, while 13% stated that religion was distressing (Mohr et al. 2012). The relevance of religion from the perspective of persons with MDs is supported by studies showing that religious practice is associated with improvement of psychiatric symptoms. A systematic review of 43 studies carried out in the period 1990–2010 (Bonelli and Koenig 2013) found that religion/spirituality was associated with less severe psychiatric symptoms in 72% of cases. In particular, religious practice was found to be associated with less severe symptoms in 79% of studies on depression and 40% of studies on schizophrenia. Another study reported increased probability transient psychotic states associated with intense religious experiences (Linden et al. 2010). Adherence to religions among people with MDs i
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