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Selected Publication:
Stefa, S.
“The relationship between Suicidality and Religious/Spiritual Dimensions:
A Multicenter study of Austrian and Italian psychiatric patients“
Doktoratsstudium der Medizinischen Wissenschaft; Humanmedizin; [ Dissertation ] Graz Medical University; 2016. pp. 118
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- Authors Med Uni Graz:
- Advisor:
- Giupponi Giancarlo
- Holasek Sandra Johanna
- Kapfhammer Hans-Peter
- Unterrainer Human-Friedrich
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- Abstract:
- Introduction According to the European classification of mortality rate by suicide, the countries of the Mediterranean area show the lowest mortality rate by suicide, while the countries of the Central and Northeast European area show the highest death rate by suicide. Many factors have been investigated in an attempt to explain a fragment of this European reality, but aspects such as spirituality or religiosity have not been included.The aim of this multicenter study was to investigate the intercultural and intra-cultural differences in spiritual/religious condition and their impacts on suicide and psychiatric diseases in three clinical samples and three student samples. In addition, this study identifies correlations between dimensions of suicide, spirituality and the “Big Five personality traits”. Methods In total, 1043 people were tested in three different regions of Europe: Lazio (central Italy), South Tyrol/Veneto (north Italy) and Styria (middle-eastern Austria). The questionnaires were filled in by 410 psychiatric inpatients (175 Males, 235 Females) from three departments of psychiatry and 633 students (134 Males, 499 Females) from three different universities. In this clinical study the following test procedures were applied: •Sociodemographic questionnaire (with two additional visual analogue scales for spirituality and religiousness) •C-SSRS, Baseline (Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale, basic version) •MI-RSWB 48 (Multidimensional Inventory for Religious/Spiritual Well-Being) •BFI (Big Five Inventory Questionnaire) •SCL-90-S (Symptom-Checklist) Findings The Styrian patients who defined themselves as “Believers” presented the highest values in “Suicidal ideation” and “Suicidal behavior” but not in “Actual suicide attempts”. Similar results were found in the South Tyrolean/ Venetian clinical sample. The “Nonbeliever” patients from central Italy revealed the highest values in “Actual suicide attempts”. The MI-RSB dimensions “Hope Immanent”, “Hope transcendent” and “Experience of sense and meaning” were found to be negatively related to the suicide dimensions and to the “Global mental impairment” in almost all samples. Conversely the MI-RSB dimensions of “General religiousness”, “Connectedness” and also “Spirituality” were positively related to suicide and to “Global mental impairment”. Surprisingly, in central Italy the student sample presented higher values than the clinical sample in religiosity and spirituality. The linear regression analysis revealed that in the student sample “Connectedness” anf “Spirituality” were the only predictors to have a positive correlation to “Suicide”. In our clinical sample the graded predictors were: “Existential Well-being” with a negative relation to “Suicide”, and “General Religiousness” with a positive relation to “Suicide”. We also noted that “Neuroticism” correlated significantly with “Depression”. As we thoroughly investigated the relationship between neuroticism, depression and suicide in our post tests we discovered that “Neuroticism” in combination with “Depression” represents a significant risk factor for suicide but without the involvement of “Depression”, “Neuroticism” turned out to be a protective factor against suicide. Conclusions There are many contradictory findings in this field. Most research has illustrated a tendency toward negative correlations between spiritual/religious dimensions and suicide. Our study rather found the opposite to be true and offers interesting options for further cross-cultural research.