Abstract

VERGARA, René Gallardo; VERA CONTRERAS, Gisela Marylyn; SOBARZO GONZALEZ, Samaria Guissel Cattarin  and  CISTERNAS FARIAS, Felipe Ignacio. Religion as coping in cancer patients: depressive and anxious symptoms. Psychol. av. discip. [online]. 2021, vol.15, n.1, pp.69-81.  Epub Jan 13, 2022. ISSN 1900-2386.  https://doi.org/10.21500/19002386.5110.

In times of crisis or threat, religion is one of the primary resources that people use to cope. Cancer diagnosis and treatment are an exceptionally demanding event for anyone. By this, the present study aimed to verify the relationship between religious coping through RCOPE and depressive symptoms - anxious through DASS-21, in cancer patients. This quantitative, comparative, correlational, and cross-sectional study was carried out in a sample of 96 cancer patients from the Valdivia base Hospital, Chile, and a control group of 102 subjects. The main results obtained confirm the greater use of religious coping by cancer patients than the control group; the existence of a directly proportional relationship between negative religious coping and the presence of depressive-anxious symptoms; the absence of a relationship between positive religious coping and the presence of depressive-anxious symptoms. It is concluded that the search for support from religious media is essential in periods of crisis, such as the treatment of a severe illness. However, when there is a positive relationship with the deity or religion, it would not necessarily translate into mitigation of anxious and depressive symptoms. Instead, negative coping, an increase or decrease of this type of discomfort can be expected. Therefore, in the context of serious illness, it would be advisable to focus on reducing the religious conflict to attenuate anticipatory and anxious symptoms.

Keywords : religion; religious coping; cancer; depression; anxiety..

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