Religious Identity and Comfort Beliefs in Three Groups of Psychiatric Patients and a Group of Medical Controls

In order to assess the religious beliefs and practices of psychiatric patients, a self-report questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire was administered to 73 psychiatric patients and 25 non-psychiatric controls. Older age, membership of an ethnic minority and the presence of psychiatric disorder were all significantly associated with higher scores on the questionnaire. Psychotic subjects obtained the highest scores whilst those of depressed and parasuicide subjects were intermediate between those of the control and the psychotic groups. These results emphasise the importance of religion for many patients with common psychiatric problems. Specialist religious help may be of value in the management of such problems.