Spiritual Retreat Can Lower Depression,
Raise Hope in Heart Patients
Newswise, August 2, 2011— Attending a
non-denominational spiritual retreat can
help patients with severe heart trouble feel
less depressed and more hopeful about the
future, a University of Michigan Health
System study has found.
Heart patients who participated in a
four-day retreat that included techniques
such as meditation, guided imagery,
drumming, journal writing and outdoor
activities saw immediate improvement in
tests measuring depression and hopefulness.
Those improvements persisted at three- and
six-month follow-up measurements.
The study was the first randomized clinical
trial to demonstrate an intervention that
raises hope in patients with acute coronary
syndrome, a condition that includes chest
pain and heart attack. Previous research has
shown that hope and its opposite,
hopelessness, have an impact on how patients
face uncertain futures.
“The study shows that a spiritual retreat
like the Medicine for the Earth program can
jumpstart and help to maintain a return to
psycho-spiritual well-being,” says study
lead author Sara Warber, M.D., associate
professor of family medicine at the U-M
Medical School and director of U-M’s
Integrative Medicine program.
“These
types of interventions may be of particular
interest to patients who do not want to take
antidepressants for the depression symptoms
that often accompany coronary heart disease
and heart attack.”
The findings were published in the July
issue of Explore: the Journal of Science
and Healing.
The retreat group was compared to two other
groups: one received standard cardiac care
and the other participated in a lifestyle
change retreat run by the U-M Cardiovascular
Center that focused on nutrition, physical
exercise and stress management.
The spiritual retreat portion of the study
was conducted at the Windrise Retreat Center
in Metamora, Michigan, about 50 miles north
of Detroit. In the Medicine for the Earth
program, participants are encouraged to see
themselves as part of an interconnected web
of life. The approach is founded on the work
of co-author Sandra Ingerman, M.A., who
wrote the book Medicine for the Earth: How
to Transform Personal and Environmental
Toxins, which emphasizes principles of love,
harmony, beauty, unity and peace.
The study used a number of standard mental
and physical benchmarks to assess the
success of the program.
The spiritual retreat group went from a
baseline score of 12 on the Beck Depression
Inventory, indicating mild to moderate
depression, to an improved score of 6
immediately afterward, a 50-percent
reduction. Their scores remained that low
half a year later. The lifestyle group saw
their scores drop from 11 to 7 and remain
there. The control group’s score started at
8 and went down to 6.
Participants also showed marked improvement
in their scores on a test measuring hope.
Scores on the State Hope Scale can range
from 6 to 48, with higher scores indicating
greater hope. All three study groups started
with average scores between 34 and 36. After
the spiritual retreat, participants’ average
scores rose and stayed at 40 or above, while
the other two groups’ averages remained
significantly lower, ranging from 35 to 38,
three and six months later.
“Our work adds an important spiritual voice
to the current discussion of the importance
of psychological well-being for patients
facing serious medical issues, such as acute
coronary artery disease,” Warber says.
Additional Authors: Jenna Wunder, M.P.H.,
Alyssa Northrop, M.P.H., Brenda Gillespie
Ph.D., Katherine Smith M.P.H., Katherine S.
Rhodes, Ph.D., Melvyn Rubenfire, M.D., all
of U-M. Vera L. Moura, M.D., of University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Kate Durda,
M.A., independent teacher of Medicine for
the Earth.
Funding: U-M General Clinical Research
Center grant and private donors.
Disclosures: Ingerman and Durda make some
income teaching Medicine for the Earth
trainings. Sandra Ingerman makes some
royalties on her book, Medicine for the
Earth. Both donated their time for this
study.
Citation: “Healing the Heart: A Randomized
Pilot Study of a Spiritual Retreat for
Depression in Acute Coronary Syndrome
Patients,” Explore: The Journal of
Science and Healing, July 2011.
