The Effectiveness of Islamic Spiritual Therapy on the Perception of Pain Intensity and Catastrophic Pain in Female Patients with Chronic Pain

Abstract

Background

Chronic pain is an important medical problem that is associated with significant negative effects in many aspects of life. Based on prior studies, certain religious behaviors and having religion-based beliefs help coping with chronic diseases. this research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Islamic spiritual therapy on the perception of pain intensity and catastrophizing of pain in patients with pain.

Methods

The research population included all female patients suffering from chronic pain who referred to physiotherapy and pain clinics in Shiraz in 2022; finally, 30 female patients were selected from 3 clinics using available sampling method. After meeting the inclusion criteria, they entered into the treatment process. In the pretest stage, research questionnaires including Pain catastrophizing questionnaire (pcs) (1995) and Pain Intensity Perception Questionnaire were completed and randomly assigned. The participants underwent 10 sessions of Islamic spirituality therapy, each lasted 45 min; during this time, the control group did not receive any intervention. After the end of the treatment program, the questionnaires were administered again to both groups in the form of a post-test. The data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) in SPSS version 22.

Result

the average values of pain intensity and pain catastrophizing exhibited a reduction in the post-assessment in contrast to the pre-assessment. This disparity demonstrated statistical significance within the experimental cohort, whereas the difference between the mean values of the pre- and post-assessment in the control group were not statistically significant. It affirmed the efficacy of the intervention on the experimental group.

Conclusions

Based on the findings of this study, Islamic spiritual therapy approaches decrease pain intensity and pain catastrophizing in women with chronic pain and represents new horizons in clinical interventions and thus could be used as an effective interventional method to reduce psychosocial problem and increase pain tolerance.

Keywords:

• Catastrophic pain
• chronic pain
• pain intensity
• spirituality
• spiritual therapy

Ethical approval and consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects and/or their legal guardian(s). Also, all methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. The study was approved by the ethics committee of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (ethical code: IR.SUMS.REC.1400.853). Confidentiality of the participants’ personal data was emphasized.

Authors’ contributions

Study concept and design: FE; Acquisition of data: FE, MN, AM; Analysis and interpretation of data: FE; Drafting of the manuscript: FE, MJ, MN, AM; Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content FE, MJ; Statistical analysis: FE, MJ; Administrative, technical, and material support: MN, AM; Study supervision: MN, AM. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare they have no competing interests.

Data availability statement

The data is not publicly available. Data for the present study will be made accessible upon reasonable request from the main investigator or corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This research is extracted from a research project approved by Research Center of Quran, Hadith and Medicine, at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Iran (No. 24222).