Predictors of Patients' Responses to Spiritual Psychotherapy for Inpatient, Residential, and Intensive Treatment (SPIRIT).

Abstract

Spiritual Psychotherapy for Inpatient, Residential, and Intensive Treatment (SPIRIT) is a flexible clinical protocol for delivering spiritually integrated group psychotherapy within acute psychiatric settings. The authors evaluated SPIRIT's feasibility by examining patients' perceptions of its benefits and clinical and spiritual predictors of observed effects associated with this intervention. Over a 1-year period, 22 clinicians stationed on 10 clinical units provided SPIRIT to 1,443 self-referred patients with a broad range of demographic, clinical, and spiritual and religious characteristics. Overall, patients' perceptions of benefit from SPIRIT were not associated with demographic factors. Clinical factors similarly did not predict treatment responses, suggesting that SPIRIT is equally suitable for patients with mood, anxiety, traumatic, substance use, psychotic, feeding or eating, or personality disorders and for patients with high levels of acuity. Patients with high levels of religious belief responded better to treatment, but patients with low levels of spiritual and religious identity also reported significant benefits. Patients responded better to SPIRIT when it was delivered by clinicians who reported not being affiliated with a religion than did patients receiving the SPIRIT intervention through clinicians who reported a religious affiliation. Results indicate that SPIRIT is feasible in providing spiritually integrated treatment to diverse patients across multiple levels of acute psychiatric care.