The wishes of outpatients with severe mental disorders to discuss spiritual and religious issues in their psychiatric care

Objective. In a previous multisite comparative study of spiritual and religious coping (S/R) among outpatients with schizophrenia; S/R were adaptive for 80% of patients; harmful for 13%; and marginal for 7%. This importance was underestimated by clinicians. We created an interfaith therapeutic group to address such topics. The aim of the study is to assess patients’ wish to address S/R issues in their psychiatric care. Method. Psychiatrists asked consecutive outpatients about their wish; with who they shared S/R concerns; and their interest to enroll in the “Spiritual and Recovery Group”. Results. Among the 147 patients included less than half shared their spiritual concerns with other people. A quarter wished to address S/R issues in their care; 24/147 already shared those issues with a religious professional; half of them wished also to share them with their psychiatrist. Among the 21 patients who participated in an in-depth spiritual assessment 16 patients were directed to the S/R group and 5 patients were directed to groups addressing other therapeutic objectives. Conclusion. For one patient out of ten, S/R issues were of a clinical significance warranting integration into psychiatric treatment. This study shows that patients’ views are in accordance with former research, putting forward psychiatrists’ stance on this issue.