Holy Apparition or Hyper-Religiosity:Prevalence of Explanatory Models for Religious and Spiritual Experiences in Patients with Bipolar Disorder and Their Associations with Religiousness

One point that emerges from qualitative research on religion and bipolar disorder (BD) is the problem patients with BD experience in distinguishing between genuine religious experiences and hyper-religiosity. However, clinical practice does not obviously address communication about differences in explanatory models for illness experiences. The aim of the current study is first to estimate the frequencies of different types of explanations (medical versus religious) for experiences perceived as religious and related to BD, second to explore how these types relate to diagnosis and religiousness, and third to explore the frequency of expectation of treatment for religiosity. In total, 196 adult patients at a specialist outpatient center for BD in the Netherlands completed a questionnaire consisting of seven types of explanations for religious experiences and several items on religiousness. Of the participants who had had religious experiences (66%), 46% viewed the experiences as 'part of spiritual development' and 42% as 'both spiritual and pathological,' 31% reported 'keeping distance from such experiences,' and 15% viewed them as 'only pathological.' Measures of religiousness were positively associated with 'part of spiritual development' and negatively associated with 'keeping distance from the experiences' and 'only pathological.' Half of the sample viewed religiosity as an important topic in treatment. It can be hypothesized that strength of religiousness may help people to integrate destabilizing experiences related to BD into their spiritual development. However, the ambiguity of strong religious involvement in BD necessitates careful exploration of the subject in clinical practice

Topology of the SU(2) vacuum: a lattice study using improved cooling

We study the topological structure of the SU(2) vacuum at zero temperature: topological susceptibility, size, shape and distance distributions of the instantons. We use a cooling algorithm based on an improved action with scale invariant instanton solutions. This algorithm needs no monitoring or calibration, has an inherent cut off for dislocations and leaves unchanged instantons at physical scales. The physical relevance of our results is checked by studying the scaling and finite volume dependence. We obtain a susceptibility of (200(15) MeV)^4. The instanton size distribution is peaked around 0.43fm, and the distance distribution indicates a homogeneous, random spatial structure.Comment: 45 pages, Latex, 19 figures. Improvements and some new remarks added in sections 3.4, 3.5, 4. and figures 14, 16, 17 and 18 (concerning mostly I-A interactions and density-density correlations). New references adde

Religion and Spirituality in Prevention and Promotion in Mental Health

The role that religion and spirituality (R/S) can play in promotion and prevention of mental health is not strictly defined, and the influence of culture is most probably decisive. As a tentative principle, aspects of R/S can be conceived of as epidemiological factors, sometimes showing associations with better mental health, or with worse mental health (which is clear for at least one aspect: religious struggle). Three main targets of prevention are suggested; (1) To consider and educate how R/S may contribute to mental hygiene; (2) to address both religious struggle and positive elements of R/S in those who suffer from mental problems, to foster the therapeutic alliance and compliance; and (3) in order to prevent associated disability for those with mental disorders, to consider R/S as a domain in life that is in need of care, with special attention to how R/S relates to existential concerns and the recovery process

Opinie: Zingeving en psychische hulpverlening

Veel cliënten willen graag dat spiritualiteit en zingeving ook in de behandeling aan bod komen. Welke kansen biedt dit en waar liggen de grenzen