Payman Vahid, George Kuruvilla, Ryburn Bridget
The Peter James Centre and Department of Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2008 Jan;23(1):16-21. doi: 10.1002/gps.1827.
To determine the prevalence of religious practices and beliefs of depressed elderly Australian inpatients and their relationship to physical, social, and cognitive variables known to influence the prognosis of depression in the elderly. To compare the results obtained with those from similar North American studies.
Inpatients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of major depression were interviewed on admission to the psychogeriatric unit of a Melbourne geriatric centre. Information collected included patient demographics, intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity, cognitive function, severity of depression, number of chronic illnesses, physical function, and numbers and quality of social support. Pearson correlation and multivariate analysis using a standard regression model were used to examine relationships between the religious and other variables.
Of the 86 patients who completed the assessment, 25% attended church regularly and 37% prayed, meditated, or read the Bible, at least once a day. Just over half rarely or never engaged in such behaviours. Three out of every eight patients were 'intrinsically' religious. Religious patients expressed higher levels of social support and physically disabled patients were more likely to be religious.
Depressed elderly Australian inpatients are less religious than their North American counterparts. Nevertheless, religion remains important for a large minority of such individuals. Clinicians need to be aware that such individuals may turn to religion when depressed, especially to cope with the presence of physical disability.
确定澳大利亚老年抑郁症住院患者宗教活动和信仰的流行程度，以及它们与已知会影响老年抑郁症预后的身体、社会和认知变量之间的关系。将所得结果与北美类似研究的结果进行比较。
对墨尔本一家老年病中心心理老年科收治的符合《精神疾病诊断与统计手册》第四版（DSM-IV）重度抑郁症诊断标准的住院患者进行入院访谈。收集的信息包括患者人口统计学资料、内在和外在宗教信仰、认知功能、抑郁严重程度、慢性疾病数量、身体功能以及社会支持的数量和质量。使用Pearson相关性分析和标准回归模型进行多变量分析，以检验宗教与其他变量之间的关系。
在完成评估的86名患者中，25%的患者定期去教堂，37%的患者每天至少祈祷、冥想或阅读《圣经》一次。略超过一半的患者很少或从不进行此类活动。每八名患者中有三名是“内在”宗教信徒。有宗教信仰的患者表达出更高水平的社会支持，身体残疾的患者更有可能有宗教信仰。
澳大利亚老年抑郁症住院患者的宗教信仰程度低于北美同龄人。然而，宗教对这类患者中的一大部分人来说仍然很重要。临床医生需要意识到，这类患者在抑郁时可能会求助于宗教，尤其是为了应对身体残疾的状况。
