Abstract

Kirov G, Kemp R, Kirov K, et al. Religious faith after psychotic illness. Psychopathology 1998;31:234–245.

Relatively little data is available about what role religion plays in the lives of psychotic individuals. The authors of this paper used a semistructured format to interview 52 consecutive patients hospitalized for psychosis about their religious beliefs. Over 66% were religious, and over 20% said that religion was the most important part of their lives; 30.4% reported that there had been an increase in their religiousness since the onset of their illness, and 61.2% were using their religion for coping with the illness.