ArticleJournal of religion and health2023
Spiritual Pain: A Symptom in Search of a Clinical Definition.
Article in Journal of religion and health, 2023. 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.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- "It helps me cope": a meta-ethnographic synthesis on lived experiences of spiritual bypassing.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Relationship between spiritual pain, physical pain, and existential wellbeing among cancer patients: a correlational study.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Article
- Spiritual suffering in palliative care: a concept analysis.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Review
- Approaching Suffering in Young University Students, New Challenge for a Compassionate University: A Qualitative Study of Undergraduate Nursing Students.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Cultural adaptation and validation of the Sinhala version of the spiritual needs assessment for patients (S-SNAP) questionnaire.BMC palliative care · 2024Article
- Spiritual Care for Cancer Patients at the End-of-Life.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Review
- Associations of religious and existential variables with psychosocial factors and biomarkers of cardiovascular risk in bereavement.Aging cell · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
We conducted a literature search to identify and compare definitions of the experiential dimension of spiritual pain. Key databases were searched, up to the year 2021 inclusive, for papers with a definition of "spiritual" or "existential" pain/distress in a clinical setting. Of 144 hits, seven papers provided theoretical definitions/descriptions; none incorporated clinical observations or underlying pathophysiological constructs. Based on these findings, we propose a new definition for "spiritual pain" as a "self-identified experience of personal discomfort, or actual or potential harm, triggered by a threat to a person's relationship with God or a higher power." Our updated definition can inform future studies in pain assessment and management.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.