Medizinische Universität Graz Austria/Österreich - Forschungsportal - Medical University of Graz
Gewählte Publikation:
Sollgruber, A.
Religiosity and Spirituality in Pain Medicine
Doktoratsstudium der Medizinischen Wissenschaft; Humanmedizin; [ Dissertation ] Graz Medical University; 2018. pp.
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- Autor*innen der Med Uni Graz:
- Betreuer*innen:
- Bornemann-Cimenti Helmar
- Sandner-Kiesling Andreas
- Szilagyi Istvan - Szilard
- Altmetrics:
- Abstract:
- Purpose: Pain is considered to be an important clinical, social, and economic problem in this world. According to studies, many people live in pain without adequate pain management. The latest research supports the salutogenic function of spiritual themes and interventions in pain. The aim of this paper is to scientifically examine the effect that meditation as opposed to relaxation has on experimentally induced pain. By means of a guided meditation in an experimental design, the present study attempts to examine the effects on the different individual pain sensations, perception, intensity, tolerance, and pain processing as well as the cardiovascular reactivity to these stimuli and the religious spiritual well-being and the psychological state and its changes. It is assumed that the guided meditation has a higher physical, psychological, and spiritual added value in healthy research participants compared to the relaxation condition. Furthermore, the paper investigates to what extent the intervention influences the physical, psychological, and spiritual health outcomes of the research participants. Additionally, the paper investigates what the connection between the different subjective pain sensations as well as the cardiovascular reactivity to these stimuli and their changes is to the degree of spirituality and the coping strategies of the research participants. Methodology: 128 healthy participants aged 18 to 70 completed a pre/posttest battery for various areas of spirituality, in combination with self-assessment inventories for pain for psychiatric symptoms as well as visual analog scales for subjective perception (of pain, stress, relaxation, and spirituality). Subsequently, the participants were randomly assigned to the intervention groups meditation versus relaxation condition. By means of pre-post quantitative sensory testing including a cold pressor test, the pain perception thresholds, intensity, and tolerance were surveyed by an experimentally induced pain. In addition, the heart rate was recorded as an indicator of stress as were further visual analog scales for subjective perception. Furthermore, social anamnestic data was collected for all participants. The questionnaire battery was then given without the socio-demographic part, as was initially the case. Results: The findings show that during a 20-minute meditation, the meditation group developed a higher pain tolerance for the cold pressor test and a lower pain sensation/lower pain intensity for the widespread pain index for heat compared to the relaxation group. The meditation group also showed a higher spiritual well-being, had more spiritual coping resources, was able to forgive others more easily, was more optimistic and confident about the future. Moreover, the present study shows that a heightened spiritual well-being, and more spiritual coping resources of the research participants as well as positive feelings such as satisfaction, security, optimism, hope, and a feeling of being a part of something larger than oneself are linked to a higher pain tolerance overall. In particular, the stronger the feeling of transcendence is perceived – a spiritual connection with God or the Divine, fellow human beings, and nature –, the higher the pain tolerance of the person. Conclusion: Meditation thus offers a recognized and validated method for changing pain tolerance and pain intensity. It seems that this method results in a remarkable pain reduction in people with relatively little effort, regardless of the participants’ degree of religiosity or spirituality. Meditation can also influence a number of different areas that have an impact on pain sensation and pain tolerance. The information obtained from this study suggests that meditation can promote both physical and psychological religious/spiritual health. Further studies are required, however, to determine whether meditation has similar implications for pain sufferers.