Spiritual Therapy in Coping with Cancer as a Complementary Medical Preventive Practice.
10.15430/JCP.2017.22.2.82
- Author:
Abolfazl MOVAFAGH
1
;
Mohammad Hassan HEIDARI
;
Morteza ABDOLJABBARI
;
Neda MANSOURI
;
Afsoon TAGHAVI
;
Aliasghar KARAMATINIA
;
Narjes MEHRVAR
;
Mehrdad HASHEMI
;
Mona GHAZI
Author Information
1. Department of Medical Genetics, Cancer Research Center, Shohada Referral Hospital, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. movafagh.a@sbmu.ac.ir
- Publication Type:Review
- Keywords:
Cancer;
Spiritual therapy;
Health care;
Communities
- MeSH:
Delivery of Health Care;
Humans;
Prevalence;
Psychotherapy;
Spirituality
- From:Journal of Cancer Prevention
2017;22(2):82-88
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
There are many of methods of treating cancer. However, the concept of curing the cancer is beyond our current knowledge. Some patients who have the cancer may seek an alternative manner of curing their disease. Alternative medicines, such as spiritual and complementary therapy, are able to cure the cancer and, at the least, are safe. Research on the importance of spirituality in cancer care has mainly been performed in geographically heterogeneous populations. The results are limited to these specific religious-cultural contexts and enlightened by contributions from ethnicity and religion. This article focused on the religiousness and spiritual support of cancer patients from diverse and heterogeneous groups around the globe. An electronic search of peer-reviewed articles was systematically performed to obtain the relevant literature with the CINAHL, PsycINFO, and PubMed databases. The keywords included religion, cancer, illness, psychotherapy, and spiritual and alternative treatment/therapies. The inclusion criteria for the reviews were that the documents were original quantitative research and published in English. Articles that were not directly relevant to the present objective were excluded. The present outcome of these review resources suggest that it may be helpful for clinicians to address spirituality, particularly with regard to prevention, healing, and survival of cancer patients. This article indicates that it may be useful for clinical oncologists to be informed of the prevalence of the use of spiritual medicine in their specialized field. In addition, patients should routinely be asked about the use of spiritual medicine as part of every cancer patient' evaluation.
