ArticleBMJ open2016
Experiences and explanations of mental ill health in a group of devout Christians from the ethnic majority population in secular Sweden: a qualitative study.
Article in BMJ open, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- The experiences of spirituality among adults with mental health difficulties: a qualitative systematic review.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2019Pooled it
- "I need to get back to a normal life": using the core DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview to explore existential themes shared by adolescents in specialized mental healthcare in Norway.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Efficacy testing of the DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview for patients in vocational rehabilitation in Norway.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Being in-between; exploring former cult members' experiences of an acculturation process using the cultural formulation interview (DSM-5).Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Conflicting Advice between Spiritual Leaders, Friends and Family, and Mental Health Providers: Impacts on Mental Health Treatment-Seeking Behaviors.Journal of religion and health · 2021Article
- Understanding self-construction of health among the slum dwellers of India: a culture-centred approach.Sociology of health & illness · 2020Article
- Mental Health Conceptualization and Resilience Factors in the Kalasha Youth: An Indigenous Ethnic and Religious Minority Community in Pakistan.Frontiers in public health · 2018Article
- A Mental Health Survey of Different Ethnic and Occupational Groups in Xinjiang, China.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo explore existential meaning-making in an ethnic-majority subgroup with mental ill health and to increase knowledge about the importance of gaining access to such information in mental healthcare.
designQualitative study using in-depth interviews and systematic text condensation analysis.
participants17 devote Christians with an ethnic-Swedish background, 12 women and 5 men, 30-73 years old, from different congregations across Sweden, having sought medical care for mental ill health of any kind.
settingThe secular Swedish society.
resultsA living, although asymmetric, relationship with God often was seen as the most important relationship, giving hope and support when ill, but creating feelings of abandonment and fear if perceived as threatened. Symptoms were interpreted through an existential framework influenced by their view of God. A perceived judging God increased feelings of guilt, sinfulness and shame. A perceived merciful God soothed symptoms and promoted recovery. Existential consequences, such as being unable to pray or participate in congregational rituals, caused feelings of 'spiritual homelessness'. Participants gave biopsychosocial explanations of their mental ill health, consonant with and sometimes painfully conflicting with existential explanations, such as being attacked by demons. Three different patterns of interaction among biopsychosocial and existential dimensions in their explanatory systems of illness causation were identified: (a) comprehensive thinking and consensus; (b) division and parallel functions and (c) division and competitive functions.
conclusionsPrevailing medical models for understanding mental ill health do not include the individual's existential experiences, which are important for identifying risk and protective factors as well as possible resources for recovery. The various expressions of existential meaning-making identified in this devout religious subgroup illustrate that existential information cannot be generalised, even within a small, seemingly homogenous group. The three identified patterns of interactions formed a typology that may be of use in clinical settings.
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