[Spirituality, religious practices and schizophrenia: relevance for the clinician].

Religion (spirituality and religiousness) is salient in the lives of many people suffering from schizophrenia. In order to assess religious coping in schizophrenia, we developed a clinical grid, as no validated questionnaire exists for this population. Religion had a positive effect for 71% and a negative effect for 14% of the 115 patients interviewed. Religion influences the sense of self, symptoms, social functioning, the comorbidity of substance abuse, suicidal attempts and adherence to treatment. Then religion is relevant for treatment and should be evaluated systematically. The forementioned clinical grid is suitable for this purpose. It proved its applicability to a broad diversity of religious beliefs, even pathological ones. Inter-judge reliability and construct validity were high and specific training is not required.