Relationship between Religious Coping and Silver Lining Tendencies among Cancer Patients

Abstract

Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. In categorizing neoplasms, 3 most important items of information are the location of tumor (site, topography), histological or cytological appearance and the behavior of the tumor (benign, malignant). Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among females, accounting for 23% of the total cancer cases and 14% of cancer deaths. Lung cancer is the leading cancer site in males; comprising 17% of the total cancer cases and 23% of the total cancer deaths (GLOBOCAN, 2008). Symptoms of cancer depend on the type, location of the cancer. Some symptoms that can occur with most cancers are chills, fever, loss of appetite, night sweats, weight loss, etc. Though the cause of many types of cancer is unknown, some of the common causal factors are benzene and other chemicals, drinking excess alcohol, environmental toxins like poisonous mushrooms and a type of poison that can grow on peanut plants (aflatoxins), excessive sunlight exposure, genetic problems, obesity, radiation, viruses, age (the incidence of most cancers with age), sex (most cancers are more frequent in men than in women), race (some nasopharyngeal cancers occur more among Chinese and in some regions of USA, while prostate cancer is almost twice as common among Africans as Americans/Europeans) place of residence certain cancers (lung, breast), etc (Morris etal., 1988).Treating the cancer patients involves multistages and the approach is also multifolded. The most common mainstream cancer treatments include suigery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. These therapies may be used either alone or in combination with other therapies and approaches. One important consideration in treating cancer patients, being the victim of a life threatening disease is religious means of coping. More than 85% of the world's population adhere to some religion, including Christianity with around 2 billion and Islam with more than 1 billon (Adherents, 2003), each, with its own doctrines, attitudes and practices. Thus, religiosity is part of our culture, and it plays an important role in determining many aspects of our lives, which includes coping with illness.Spirituality is more concerned with direct experience of latent higher consciousness within one's self, i.e. the internal space, and religion is an institutionalized set of beliefs, practices, and guidelines that an individual adopts and follows. Positive religious coping methods, such as prayer and benevolent religious appraisals of negative situations, reflect the perception of a secure relationship with God, a belief in a benevolent purpose to life, and a sense of connectedness with a religious community. In contrast, negative religious coping methods, such as attributions of situations to a punishing God and feelings of abandonment by God, reflects a struggle that grows out of a perception of a tenuous relationship with God, a more ominous view of life, and a sense of disconnectedness with a religious community. Empirical studies have demonstrated that many people turn to religion as a resource in their efforts to understand and deal with the most difficult times of their lives. In several studies, religion has been consistently found to be an important coping resource for those with life threatening illnesses. Positive religious coping among patients seem to be associated with enhanced Quality of Life (Tarakeshwar et al., 2006). Similar studies have been done by Mytko and Knight (1999) and Farell, Smith et al (2003) which show the importance of religion in coping with illness. Quite on the contrary, it seems that younger women with more advanced disease, who used more negative spiritual coping, had a greater tendency towards depression and that the use of negative coping was associated with greater anxiety scores (Boscaglia et al., 2005). Among cancer patients, there is more response to chemotherapy when the patient's faith score is higher (Lissoni et al. …