محمدرضا فیاضی بردبار

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease with a death rate of 1-5%. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between spiritual health and the effects of grief from the loss of loved one due to COVID-19.

This cross-sectional study was performed in 312 family members of the deceased COVID-19 patients in Mashhad, Iran, April-September 2020. Non-randomized sampling was performed and data were collected online using the Grief Experience Questionnaire (GEQ-34) and the Spiritual Well Being Scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive tests and Pearson correlation coefficient.

According to findings, the highest score in dimensions of grief experience was found for the dimension of stigma (3.89±0.54), followed by the attempt to justify and cope with the absence of the deceased person (3.49±0.43), and judgment of the person or others about the cause of death (3.23±0.37). The highest relationship between spiritual health and reducing the effects of grief was seen in the dimensions of embarrassment and shame (r= -0.593), guilt (r= -0.566), and abandonment (r= -0.535).

Abnormal grief in the family of deceased COVID-19 patients is common which could have a negative impact on physical, mental, social, and functional health. So, social support and strengthening spiritual health are needed to reduce the effects of grief in bereaved survivors.

This study aimed to investigate the cultural aspects of social anxiety and its clinical features in an Iranian population.

The sample of this study consisted of the clients of Mashhad counseling centers. Twenty clients who had received the Social Anxiety Disorder diagnosis by a psychiatrist, were selected via a purposeful sampling to participate in the interview. The interviews were conducted using the semi-structured DSM-5 cultural formulation interviews. The transcripts of the interviews were analyzed by content analysis method using a seven-step Colaizzi technique and the concepts and categories were extracted.

The content analysis of the interviews resulted in the identification and extraction of one hundred and fifty concepts that were classified into seventeen components: emotional feature, cognitive feature, behavioral feature, anxiety somatization, interaction and communication deficit, function reduction, the perceived social desirability of lack of self-assertiveness, the perceived religious desirability of behavioral and speech constraint, lack of perceiving and receiving family support, lack of perceiving and receiving relatives and friends’ support, the impact of gender (being a girl) on the formation and continuation of anxiety, the causes of anxiety, applying ineffective coping strategies, ineffective encounter of family and friends with the treatment, ineffective individual encounter with the treatment, the influence of religious and spiritual resources, and the acceptance and the appropriate communication with the counselor and therapist.

Despite the similarity of the participants' social anxiety experiences with the theoretical models as well as the consistency of the syndromes with the DSM-5 criteria, the content differences were observed in the form of normative beliefs, supportive resources, coping strategies, and encounter with the therapeutic resources.