title: The impact of spirituality before and after treatment of major depressive disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The authors sought to assess spirituality in depressed patients and evaluate whether the degree of initial depressive symptoms and response to pharmacotherapy treatment has a correlation with degree of spirituality and belief in God.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our participants included 84 patients who presented to a depression/anxiety clinic for naturalistic treatment of their depressive illness over the course of two years. All patients met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision criteria for major depression, as confirmed by structured interviews using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, and were treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors for eight weeks.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients were evaluated at baseline and after treatment using the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale, and the Spiritual Orientation to Life scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At baseline, patients reporting greater spirituality had significantly lower measures of hopelessness, dysfunctional attitudes, and depressive symptoms. Those who believed in God had a greater mean change score than those who did not on the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale, with the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale showing the greatest mean change score. Significant correlations were detected between the Spiritual Orientation to Life scale score and the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale pre-scores, post-scores, and change scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest that greater spirituality is associated with less severe depression. Moreover, the degree to which the measures of depressive symptom severity, hopelessness, and cognitive distortions improved over the course of eight weeks was significantly greater for those patients who were more spiritual.
authors.affiliation: Dr. Peselow is from the Richmond University Medical Center and Freedom From Fear, Staten Island, New York; Ms. Pi, Dr. Lopez, Mr. Besada, and Dr. IsHak are from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Peselow
authors.affiliation: Dr. Peselow is from the Richmond University Medical Center and Freedom From Fear, Staten Island, New York; Ms. Pi, Dr. Lopez, Mr. Besada, and Dr. IsHak are from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pi
authors.affiliation: Dr. Peselow is from the Richmond University Medical Center and Freedom From Fear, Staten Island, New York; Ms. Pi, Dr. Lopez, Mr. Besada, and Dr. IsHak are from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lopez
authors.affiliation: Dr. Peselow is from the Richmond University Medical Center and Freedom From Fear, Staten Island, New York; Ms. Pi, Dr. Lopez, Mr. Besada, and Dr. IsHak are from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Besada
authors.affiliation: Dr. Peselow is from the Richmond University Medical Center and Freedom From Fear, Staten Island, New York; Ms. Pi, Dr. Lopez, Mr. Besada, and Dr. IsHak are from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Waguih William
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Ishak
keywords: Spirituality; depression; major depressive disorder; religiosity