Religiosity may influence depression, QoL in bipolar disorder

By Mark Cowen, Senior medwireNews Reporter

Results from a Brazilian study suggest that higher levels of intrinsic religiosity are associated with fewer depressive symptoms and increased quality of life (QoL) in patients with bipolar disorder.

André Stroppa and Alexander Moreira-Almeida, from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora in Minas Gerais, also found that positive religious coping strategies were associated with reduced depressive symptoms and improved QoL in certain domains among patients with the mood disorder.

"Religiosity is a relevant aspect of patients' lives and should be taken into consideration by physicians when assessing and managing bipolar disorder patients," they comment.

The findings come from a study of 168 outpatients (81.5% women), aged a mean of 46.2 years, with bipolar disorder who underwent assessments in 2010.

As reported in Bipolar Disorders, all of the participants were interviewed about religiosity using a Portuguese-validated version of the Duke University Religious Index (DUREL).

The DUREL indicates level of religious involvement by assessing three dimensions of religiousness commonly related to health: organizational religiosity (how often an individual attends church, etc), private religiosity (how much time an individual dedicates to private religious activities), and intrinsic religiosity (the extent to which religious beliefs inform an individual's approach to life).

The participants were also assessed using the Young Mania Rating Scale, the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, the Brief Religious Coping Scale, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life scale - Brief Version.

Overall, 88.1% of patients reported a religious affiliation.

After accounting for demographic variables, the researchers found that intrinsic religiosity and positive religious coping significantly and inversely correlated with depression levels.

Intrinsic religiosity also significantly and positively correlated with all QoL domains (physical, psychologic, social relationships, and environment), while positive religious coping significantly and positively correlated with the psychologic and environmental QoL domains.

However, intrinsic religiosity was not associated with mania, history of suicide attempts, or psychiatric hospitalizations, and neither organizational religiosity nor private religiosity were associated with any clinical variables.

"Although the design of the study did not allow for an assessment of the direction of causality, our data suggest an impact of religious involvement on the clinical aspects of BD [bipolar disorder]," Stroppa and Moreira-Almeida conclude.

They add: "This hypothesis should be investigated in longitudinal studies that test religiosity and religious coping as predictors of the leading outcomes of BD evolution, which may establish causal relationships and indicate clinically relevant areas for evolution and treatment."

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