Do spirituality and religiousness differ with regard to personality and recovery from depression? A follow-up study

The studies show that both spirituality and religiousness are protective for mental health. Personality is related with course and outcome of depression, as well as spirituality and religiousness, and their relations toward to recovery from depression are underresearched. This study followed influence of spirituality and religiousness on course and outcome of depression in patients with depressive episode, controlled for personality dimensions.

The patients were assessed with self-report measures of depression (Beck Depression Inventory), spirituality (WHO-Quality of Life-Spiritual, Religious, Personal Beliefs), religiousness (Duke University Religion Index) and personality (Temperament and Character Inventory). Ninety nine patients finished a year long follow up.

Higher spirituality influenced recovery of depression in patients with depressive episode, but religiousness did not show to be significant predictor of recovery for depression. Dimension harm avoidance was significant predictor of improvement of depression in all points of measurement.

Some limitations of this research are small sample size, usage of the self-report measures of depression in follow-up period, and the predominantly Catholic affiliation of the participants that can impact the generalizability of our data to other denominations.

Spirituality and dimension harm avoidance are significant predictors of recovery from depression during a year long follow up.