Dissertation committee:
Χρούσος Π. Γεώργιος, Καθηγητής Ιατρική, ΕΚΠΑ
Βασδέκης Σπυρίδων, Καθηγητής Ιατρική, ΕΚΠΑ
Θανοπούλου Αναστασία, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια Ιατρική, ΕΚΠΑ
Πρωτογέρου Αθανάσιος, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής Ιατρική, ΕΚΠΑ
Κασσή Ευανθία, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια Ιατρική, ΕΚΠΑ
Περβανίδου Παναγιώτα, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια Ιατρική, ΕΚΠΑ
Ζουμάκης Εμμανουήλ, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής Ιατρική, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
Introduction: Health and illness are two opposing forces, which balance man as a psychosomatic totality. Health is in constant and close relationship of interdependence and interaction with pathophysiological as well as social, environmental, spiritual and religious factors, which, co-operating perfectly with each other, contribute to the establishment of a dynamic balance of both health and the wider cultural context of a society. An important factor for the effectiveness of intellectual and / or religious interventions that facilitate self-management is their close connection with cultural beliefs and patients' values.
Objective: The aim of this PhD dissertation is to describe and analyze the concept of spirituality, to examine religious and Orthodox religious spirituality in relation to health, as well as to present Orthodox Christian spiritual factors - Orthodox Christian religious practices - those that have a substantial impact on health, as well as their mechanisms of connection to health, illness and cure.
Main Literature Review: A review was carried out on international and Greek scientific databases and on Greek scientific library bases from 2014 until the spring of 2018. Important information was also drawn from Greek and foreign language books and dictionaries as well as from the Orthodox literature.
Results: Religious spirituality and its factors affect in a positive way and improve the psychosomatic health and quality of life of people who experience any chronic and threatening disease, contribute to better treatment and management of their disease, create positive feelings, lead them to increase levels of self-control and self-care, as they develop better health behaviours and better medical and therapeutic compliance, contribute to their establishing a healthy way of life and provide them with the appropriate resources, so that they can manage each stressful situation they experience in their everyday life in a more effective way.
Conclusion: Religious spirituality and its factors contribute to the improvement of the patients' quality of life and it is a priority of the holistic approach to treatment, which should be taken seriously by health professionals; the orthodox Pastoral care should also contribute to it in a dynamic and energetic way, since meeting these needs is very important and affects the patients' satisfaction by the provided health services.
Keywords:
Spirituality, Religiosity, Religion, Health, Illness, Cure, Healing, Ministry, Medicine, Wellness, Well-being, QoL, HROoL, Evaluation, Assessment, Needs, Care, Strategies of treatment, Coping strategies, Stress, Impact, Positive feelings/emotions, Mortality, Factors of spirituality, Love, Belief, Faith, Hope, Ecclesiasm (attending Mass), Prayer, Mental prayer, Lord's Prayer, Forgiveness, Compassion, Gratitude, Repentance, Confession, Extreme Unction, Humility, Patience, Fast, Psychometric tools, Questionnaires, Scales
