Medical Ethics
Year:2011 | Volume:4 | Issue:14|Papers Count:11

The historical intertwinement of the spirituality and health is observed in the works of many medical figures of Iran, particularly Muslim figures. The emphasis on that the biological aspect of man should not be merely noticed in the healthcare, but also the mental, social and spiritual aspects of his health should be also considered, has increased.The complete meaning of the spiritual health is not limited to the effect of the praying and mental states on the treatment of diseases and its replacement for common medical treatments and/or supplementary medicine. In the Iranian-Islamic culture and atmosphere, the most effective factor on the people's health is to attain the spiritual health the thought and literature of which has been shaped and compiled based on Quran by dozens of theosophists and penmen and is considered as a source for the description of the spiritual health and supply of ways to attain it. The presentation of a comprehensive definition of the spiritual health and its indices and explaining its relation with the bases, institutes and internal elements of the society based on the culture, beliefs and sovereign values over the Iranian-Islamic society face an essential issue that requires the performance of more research.

Spirituality is a human lost property throughout the universe that knows no time and place. Although the word spirituality and its derivatives have not been used in the genuine Islamic sources, they have been propagated in Muslims' literature both in Arabic and Persian languages. As the application of this word has shown, it is related with the "meaning" so that the lexical origin of the spirituality confirms this matter. The meaning refers to a situation that includes at least two layers: one, the appearance that narrates and the other the inside that is narrated. All the scholars' theories are common in two points notwithstanding differences: the meaning is something that is concealed inside a statement or action and must be discovered and the second that the meaning is somehow related with the belief system and the aims of a special action. Islam presents a complete perspective of the existence. The relation between the world's appearance and its inside is one of meaning so that the apparent world is a show of the world's inside and indicates a meaning that has been concealed inside it.

This matter that what is meant by the spiritual aspect of the health and what does spiritual health mean is a subject that should be discussed seriously and perhaps reaching a joint and generally accepted definition is an inaccessible or unlikely and difficult matter. The spirituality may be illustrated from to perspectives, one, the general view that is inclined toward laicite and the other view held by the theological schools. When the spirit or its Quranic interpretation is noticed, a deep gap between the laicite view on the concept of spirituality and the theological-Islamic view may be observed.According to widespread performed studies, now is the period of compromise and interaction between two fields of religion and spirituality on one hand and between the humanities and health on the other hand. In our opinion, the followers of all divine religions may despite many distortions generally approach an almost uniform definition of health, spiritual aspects of health and the spiritual health within a frame presented in this paper, a definition that laics may also face it, at least as a discussable theory by avoiding the mentality of denial and prejudice.

The relation between spirituality and health has been completely recorded in the Islamic theology. The present study aims at discussing spirituality as a conceptual foundation of health. Searching in Quran and other Islamic sources shows that spirituality in the Islamic theology is the knowledge and faith in the invisible world and the monotheistic explanation of the existence system and grounding the body actions on this very foundation. Spirituality in the Islamic Theology is main essence of the piety and it is not the mere compliance with and practice of the Shariah rules or compliance with moral actions. This spirituality is the substructure of worshiping and morals. Based on the Islamic knowledge, spirituality is the foundation for the health of body and soul.

The relation between the spiritual health and theosophy is an important field about which research is growing in recent years and study in this area seems important more than ever noting the rich heritage of Muslims in this field and helps us in reaching a spiritual and healthy life more than ever. In this research we seek to explain and present the fundamentals of teachings of Islamic theosophy in the area of spiritual health. This study is based on the descriptive analytical and comparative method and has collected data by the library method. The findings show that by providing this fundamentals along with new debates on the spiritual health together with the mental training of man assisted by religions, the restructure of the theosophical fundamentals of the spiritual health may be supported greatly noting that the issue of complete man is the main topic in debates of Islamic theosophy and theosophists seek to attain the position of complete man by mental and physical training.

Introduction: perhaps the encounter between the spiritual health and science has not caused controversy in any other field except medicine.Despite all theoretical advances in the area of health, noticing the spiritual aspect of health has been ignored in most plans of the promotion of health. There are also many ambiguities and questions about the manner in which the spirituality affects the individuals' heath that requires new research to answer them. This research seeks to have a preliminary discussion of the scientific position and the role of the spiritual health in preventing from diseases.Method: The present research is a descriptive study. The documental method has been used to collect data. Information and data have been collected and studied by an indirect method using the archived documents either in the shape of private or edited documents, specialized books and written sources.Findings: new scientific disciplines have raised views about the probable roles of the components of the spiritual health in preventing from diseases, but they stay basically aborted unless their theories lead to the practical research. Related research also confirms that the components of the spiritual health enjoy mostly preventive effects, but still much work must be performed so that the issues related with correlation between the spiritual health and the physical health are clarified. The findings showed that preventing from diseases may not be separated from the spiritual care.Conclusion: Although spirituality and the spiritual health are very far from biology, but in practice, they are related with it in many respects.The tip of this mountain of ice is visible, but as science examines the various links of spirituality, the spiritual health and biology more, the body of this mountain emerges more than ever.

Dealing with the spiritual aspects in medicine is not a common part of the curriculums of medical faculties. Whereas, this issue is something asked for and expected by patients from us. Evidences show that the spiritual behavior can be learnt and taught in respect of securing health and the spiritual health. Spiritual psychotherapy, cognitive-therapy by a spiritual approach, consultation by a spiritual approach, group therapy/ family-therapy by a spiritual approach, bibliotherapy by reading sacred and spiritual texts, treatment and healing in spiritual places and circles and also the mode of spiritual life in securing the health of people have an outstanding role. Spiritual education and treatment is the task of spiritual experts, but treatment, consultation and teaching sound behavior by a spiritual approach is the task of academic experts.

Introduction: today, the tendency toward the spirituality is observed as a new trend in the educational, training and cultural arenas more than other arenas.The area of teaching and training provides the best situation for the crystallization of the spirituality in man. Noticing the spiritual health in education needs a proper educational planning. Therefore, in this research we have dealt with the study of the spiritual health in the program of medical and nursing education of Iran.Method: this study has been performed by a descriptive and theoretical method. Data have been collected by a documental method and searching in scientific information and data bases in internet.Findings: the spiritual health has entered into the educational programs of many countries throughout the world and the educational programs and curriculums are made and developed based on it in a bed of spirituals concepts. Some measures have been taken also in the curriculums of doctoral course in medicine and the bachelor course in nursing in Iran. But, the educational content on the spirituality and the spiritual health must be included in the nursing and medical curriculums.Conclusion: the education of the spiritual health has been recommended in different universities. It is necessary that proper educational content and setting to be provided also in this respect.Beside necessary skills for the students in respect of nursing and medical care, gaining skill in respect of the spiritual health seems necessary too.

Background and aims: Today, the impact of the spiritual attitudes of patients and physicians on the patients' treatment is a subject that has attracted the interest of many experts and scholars. Recent researches have shown that the spiritual attitude can be effective on the treatment process. The main aim of this survey was to examine the attitudes of patients in Tehran about the effects of spirituality on their treatment process.Materials and Methods: Using the convenience sampling method, one thousand patients who referred to hospitals in Tehran were chosen to participate in this study. A valid questionnaire the validity of which has been confirmed by the experts was used in this study to assess patients' spiritual attitudes. Different dimensions such as: being spiritual and/or religious, religiosity degree, quality of life, stress scale, and preferring treatment by physicians who believed in the impact of spirituality on the treatment were all assessed by this questionnaire.Results: Findings showed that there was a significant and direct relationship (r=11%, p=0.004) between patients' being religious or spirituality and their quality of life and treatment. There was a significant relationship between quality of life and patients' spirituality rating and also between belief in the spirituality impact on treatment and patients' being religious and spiritual (p<0.001, r=289%). There was a slight difference between two sexes. There was no significant relationship between men's spirituality and religiosity and stress, however in women, there was an inverse relation between these two variables.Conclusion: There is a significant and direct relationship between patients' being religious and spiritual and their quality of life and belief in effectiveness of spirituality in treatment.

BACKGROUND: Quality of life has been known as one of the major components of health in recent decades. Quality of life includes broad concepts so that it covers all aspects of life including health. Therefore, this study has been performed with a view to studying the relationship between quality of life and the extent of spiritual beliefs among Iranian artists who live in Tehran and are members of Iranian Calligraphers Association.METHODS: The study has been done on 270 members of Iranian Calligraphers Association who have been living in Tehran between years 2005 and 2010. We used a standard questionnaire for quality of life and spirituality of the World Health Organization (SRPB-WHOQOL). Data analysis has been performed by using SPSS-16 software and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tindependent.RESULTS: there is a significant (p<0.001) relationship between physical health as a parameter of Quality of life and spirituality index and also a significant relationship between psychological health as a part of quality of life and spiritual beliefs and religiousness. However, the privilege of spiritual aspect is significantly high (Pv<0.001) among artists compared with other aspects.Conclusion: The calligraphers' spiritual index is significantly higher than other indices and shows that the increasing of spiritual beliefs affects their physical and mental health, it seems that such results may also be seen in other people. Research in this case, requires further studies.

Introduction: Intelligence is a concept that the man has been interested in enquiry on its dimensions, manifestations, qualities and types. At the same time, there has been little coherent and systematic research on the understanding and explanation of the qualities and components of the spiritual intelligence compared with other kinds of intelligence. This study was performed aiming at examining the relation between the spiritual intelligence and the components of attachment.Methods: the present study is a descriptive-analytical and cross sectional one. The statistical population includes all female students of Payame Noor University in Esfarayen County that were evaluated in a sample of 115 students. The sampling method of this study is class based in which the classes are defined as fields of education and each sample field is selected randomly in proportionate with the number of students. The spiritual intelligence questionnaire provided by Abdollahzadeh and colleagues and Collins and Read attachment scale were also used for collecting data.Results: The results of this study showed that the research sample was from the age group of 18-35 and most persons were 21-24 years old.There was also a significant relation between the educational semester and the stress component of attachment and the latter increased as the semester progressed further (8 semesters and over).71% were bachelors and 29% were married and no difference was found in this respect. The results also show that most persons enjoy a spiritual intelligence lower than medium and a below one. Little relation was found between the spiritual intelligence and modes of safe and avoidance and stress attachments. The results show that there is a relation between the spiritual intelligence and components of attachment.Conclusion: The relation between the stress component of attachment and the spiritual intelligence has a negative direction that shows that as the extent of the spiritual intelligence increases, the stress extent of attachment (fear of being rejected) decreases.