A New Focus in Clinical Care and Research

Patient spirituality, a once disregarded dimension, is emerging in research and clinical care as a relevant factor in mental health. Internationally, psychiatry's professional associations have highlighted the need for developing sensitivity to this life dimension. A growing number of U.S. psychiatric residencies now include training on how to address patient spirituality in clinical care. Quantitative research in the last 15 years in the U.K, the U.S., and other countries has discovered aspects of this complex dimension generally linked with beneficial mental health outcomes.(1,2) Research has also helped clarify aspects of negative religious coping.(3) This twopart article summarizes some of the changes in focus, clinical education, and assessment in the field of psychiatry, as well as reviews research findings investigating spirituality and mental health. Part I discussed the growing professional recognition of spirituality as a relevant mental health factor in clinical care and research, and noted changes in residency training and clinical assessment to include patient spirituality.