BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Spiritual aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have not been fully assessed. This study described the religious and existential dimensions of spirituality of patients with CKD, provided evidence to support construct validity of the ESRD Spiritual Beliefs Scale, and examined the relationship between constructs o...

BACKGROUND Although spirituality is usually considered a positive resource for coping with illness, spiritual distress may have a negative influence on health outcomes. Tools are needed to identify spiritual distress in clinical practice and subsequently address identified needs. This study describes the first steps in the development of a clinically acceptable instrument to assess spiritual di...

The purpose of this essay is to review the Grofs’ model of spiritual emergencies. The authors ask: Has the model been useful for identifying and treating psycho-spiritual distress? Should it be amended? Spiritual emergency can be defined as a crisis involving religious, transpersonal, and/or spiritual issues that provides opportunities for growth. Spiritual emergence, meanwhile, lends itself to...

Hitler had a noble purpose (to save the world) and a strong faith in the laws of Nature as he understood Nature. He was, then, a spiritual person, though his spirituality was pathological and destructive. Here, the example of Hitler, his faith, and his spiritual pathology is given to both understand spiritual pathology in general and, through contrast, to understand positive spiritual development.

Purpose. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of spiritual therapy intervention in improving the spiritual well-being and quality of life (QOL) of Iranian women with breast cancer. Methods. This randomized controlled clinical trial (RCT) recruited 65 women with breast cancer, randomly assigned to a 6-week spirituality-based intervention (n = 34) or control group (n = 31). Before an...

The cultural and religious resources of every community influence the definition of spiritual care. This paper discusses a concept analysis of spiritual care in an Islamic context. The Quran, narrations (Shie’h) and commentarial books were searched, for information data. The data was used to provide a comprehensive definition of the concept of spiritual care from Islamic literature. We identifi...