Religiosity and mental health: evolution of depression in patients according to the level of religious involvement
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Abstract
The main objective of this dissertation is to study the relationship between moderate to severe depression and religiosity in contemporary subjects. For this, eleven patients were interviewed and collected through standardized and validated research instruments (scales). The level of depression was also measured 60 to 90 days later to correlate with the level of depression improvement and level of intrinsic religiosity. The results showed that a higher level of religious involvement measured by the intrinsic religiosity scale was not implicated in greater improvement in depression nor in worsening. However, it was found that a higher level of religious involvement was associated with lower levels of depression at the beginning of the study, in a significant way. From some references in the psychology of religion, it is concluded that religiosity has little or no effect on the improvement of people with moderate to severe depression. It is understood that this happens because religiosity has lost much of its force in the contemporaneity, in addition to biological and psychological factors that make depression, after reaching a certain severity, immune to the effects of religion. However, as more religious subjects tended to have lower levels of depression at the beginning of the study, it is concluded that if religion does not improve at least it has an attenuating effect on the appearance of the disorder, that if it were not religiosity would be much more serious. Thus, religiosity in fact provided the subjects with an effective way to reduce depressive symptoms by coping with stress and making the depressive experience have some meaning in the spiritual growth of the subject, through its re-signification. It ends by emphasizing the dimension of spiritual care, which may bring more quality in the care of health professionals.
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