Role of spirituality and religiosity in clinical practice: problem conceptualization

Abstract

The concepts of spirituality and religiosity are studied in the context of cardiac disease and prevention. In psychology, psychosomatics, psychocardiology, spirituality is studied as a feature of human experience, attributed to certain transcendental ideas. Religiosity is a part of a person’s self-identification, influencing his experience of interaction with medicine, and more broadly, in general, his worldview and conceptualizations. Spirituality and religiosity are culturally specific, in particular, in Russia, where society has historically formed stereotypes of attitudes on God and other inaccessible ideas. Thus, the Russian society is characterized by lay religiosity, which includes Eastern Orthodox metaphysics along with paganism. In practical cardiology, the concepts of spirituality and religiosity can be realized explicitly (manifestation of faith by a patient and a doctor) and implicitly, without manifestation. Spirituality and religiosity can influence patient adherence, decision making, and more complex psychosomatic processes. Spirituality and religiosity can be a salutogenic factor, which promotes health, improves the psychological and physical state. But they can also mediate morbid effects if a doctor incorrectly addresses them during communication with a patient. Spirituality and religiosity are a part of complex downward system of somatic manifestation of cultural and social factors, the study and consideration of which is obvious in practice.