The effect of spiritual-religious interventions on patients' pain status: systematic review

Abstract

Introduction: Lack of adequate pain management can lead to increased disability and abnormalities in various systems of the body. A variety of pain management strategies have been tried throughout the known history of mankind. Opioids, non-opioids and local anesthetics have been the mainstay for the previous many decades, but some spiritual-religious interventions continue to be practiced in various forms in almost all societies. We aimed to determine the effect of spiritual-religious interventions on the patients' pain status in the currently available literature.
Methodology: The present study is a systematic review that was carried out by two members of the research team by searching literature available in the domestic databases such as SID, Magiran, Iran Medex, Iran Doc and existing international databases such as Scopus, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane central, and Proquest, during the years 2000 to September 2018. All articles entered into the systematic review were extracted based on a pre-designed checklist.
Results: Of the 8 studies entered into this systematic review, 6 were clinical trials and 2 semi studies. The questionnaires used were based upon MPQ, pain rating scale, visual analogue scale (VAS), the form of received pain-killer, and neonatal infantile pain scale (NIPS). The population under study included patients from neonates to adults. In this model, the pain was caused by different diseases including cancer, venipuncture, child birth, burn and coronary artery disease. In the interventions pain was reduced
Conclusion: Various religious interventions can reduce pain in patients It is thus recommended that the treating physicians may also use these interventions, which are based on the religion and culture of Iran and are considered as a non-drug intervention with no cost, no complication or side effects.
Citation: Vasigh A, Tarjoman A, Borji M. The effect of spiritual-religious interventions on patients' pain status: systematic review. Anaesth Pain & Intensive Care 2018;22(4):­­499-505
Received: 17 Oct 2018
Reviewed: 17 Oct, 01 Nov, 13 Nov 2018
Corrected: 26 Oct, 01 Nov 2018
Accepted: 29 Nov 2018