Religious and spiritual beliefs in outpatients suffering from Parkinson Disease

Abstract

Personality changes are known to occur in idiopathic Parkinson's Disease (PD). The aim of the study was to evaluate whether religious and spiritual beliefs in PD patients are different from age-matched controls. Eighty-three PD participants, 79 hypertensive individuals not affected by PD and 88 healthy subjects participated to a cross-sectional study. The Royal Free Interview (RFI) was used to evaluate participants' beliefs. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was applied to monitor emotional distress. There was no statistical evidence of a difference between PD participants and the two control groups, the only exception being observed between the left PD onset group and the controls, where the total RFI score was about 5 points higher (t-test: p = 0.0273). RFI total score was uncorrelated with age, severity of illness and depression, but was strongly dependent on the type of beliefs. The percentage of PD participants suffering from anxiety and depression was high (right onset: 54.8%; left onset: 68.6%), while only 15.2% of the hypertensive participants, and none of the healthy controls, had a HADS score above 10 points. Total RFI score was higher in women. PD participants maintain their Faith in spite of the disease severity. Differences are found between right and left onset of PD. The possible beneficial effect of religious coping is discussed.