The relationship between religious coping strategies and mental health in MS patient"

This article studies the relation between religious coping strategies and mental health and also The application of these strategies, especially the cognitive ones in ms(multiple-sclerosis) patients for example: trust in god, praying, philanthropies, believein death and the world after death. The subjects were 50 maleand female ms patients who werein the age of 25-40old. and all were received drug-therapy in one of the Tehrans psychiatric hospitals. The main hypothesis is: patients who are in stressfull conditions like: ms disease but have strong religious believe, and also they apply religious coping strategies, will attain a higher mental health. The instrument was: researcher-made questionair with 13 items in cognitive, avoidance and behavioral domain. its content validity was confirmed by psychiatrists and religious specialists. and its reliability was detected as %80 by test - retest methods in 2 weeks. T test and R correlation were used in this research. Results showed: there is not any significant difference between male/female patients inapplying of religious copings. but it was: there is significant correlation between high religious beliefs and mental health. Patients with high religious tendency have higher mental health.(p<0/5) Inconclusion, we can say that in frustrating situations, some religious beliefs such as: trust in god and having metaphysics beliefs can increase peoples mental health and even help people cope with conditions like death. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.