Prof. Dr. Arndt Büssing

CV

Arndt Büssing is professor for Quality of Life, Spirituality and Coping at the University of Witten/Herdecke, Germany. His research interests are non-pharmacological interventions and the identification and support of individual resources to cope with chronic disease.
Subsequent to his studies in medicine at the RWTH Aachen and his PhD thesis in pediatrics/human genetics, he worked as assistant doctor at the Department of Medical Immunology, RWTH Aachen, followed by an appointment as director of the Department of Applied Immunology, Communal Hospital Herdecke. After his habilitation he was lecturer at the department of Medical Theory and Complementary Medicine at the University of Witten/Herdecke. Since 2010, Arndt Büssing is full professor for Quality of Life, Spirituality and Coping at the University of Witten-Herdecke, Germany.
He is editor of the Deutsche Zeitschrift für Onkologie and editorial board member of the Journals Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Religions, and Spiritual Care. He is also spokesperson of the Transdisziplinäre Arbeitsgruppe Spiritualität und Krankheitsumgang (TASK), chair of the Internationale Gesellschaft Gesundheit und Spiritualität (IGGS), and non-residential faculty scholar of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, Duke University Medical Center, USA.

Selected Publications

• Büssing A, Janko J, Kopf A, Lux EA, Frick E: Zusammenhänge zwischen psychosozialen und spirituellen Bedürfnissen und Bewertung von Krankheit bei Patienten mit chronischen Erkrankungen. Spiritual Care 2012; 1(1): 57-73.
• Büssing A: Measures of Spirituality in Health Care. In: Cobb MR, Puchalski CM, Rumbold B (eds.): Oxford Textbook of Spirituality in Healthcare. Oxford University Press, 2012; pp. 323-331
• Büssing A, Hedtstück A, Khalsa S.B.S, Ostermann T, Heusser P: Development of Specific Aspects of Spirituality during a 6-Month Intensive Yoga Practice. Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2012; Article ID 981523, 7 pages
• Büssing A, Kerksieck P, Föller-Mancini A, Baumann K: Aspects of spirituality and ideals to help in adolescents from Christian academic high schools. International Journal of Children´s Spirituality 2012; 1-18, iFirst article (DOI:10.1080/1364436X.2012.680882)
• Büssing A, Ostermann T, Lüdtke R, Michalsen A: Effects of yoga interventions on pain and pain-associated disability: a meta-analysis. Journal of Pain 2012; 13(1): 1-9.
• Büssing A, Kohls N (eds.): Spiritualität transdisziplinär. Transdisziplinäre wissenschaftliche Grundlagen im Zusammenhang mit Gesundheit und Krankheit. Springer-Verlag, Stuttgart (2011)
• Büssing A, Koenig HG: Spiritual needs of patients with chronic diseases. Religions 2010; 1: 18-27.
• Büssing A, Ostermann T, Neugebauer EAM, Heusser P: Adaptive coping strategies in patients with chronic pain conditions and their interpretation of disease. BMC Public Health 2010, 10: 507
• Büssing A, Balzat HJ, Heusser P: Spiritual needs of patients with chronic pain diseases and cancer - validation of the spiritual needs questionnaire. European Journal of Medical Research 2010, 15(6): 266-273
• Büssing A, Fischer J, Ostermann T, Matthiessen PF: Reliance on God's Help as a Measure of Intrinsic Religiosity in healthy elderly and patients with chronic diseases – Correlations with health-related quality of life? Applied Research in Quality of Life 2009; 4(1): 77-90
• Büssing A, Fischer J: Interpretation of illness in cancer survivors is associated with health-related variables and adaptive coping styles. BMC Women´s Health 2009: 9: 2
• Büssing A, Michalsen A, Balzat HJ, Grünther RA, Ostermann T, Neugebauer EAM, Matthiessen PF: Are spirituality and religiosity resources for patients with chronic pain conditions? Pain Medicine 2009; 10 (2): 327-339
• Büssing A, Matthiessen PF, Mundle G: Emotional and rational disease acceptance in patients with depression and alcohol addiction. BMC Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2008; 6:4
• Cysarz D, Büssing A: Cardiorespiratory synchronization during Zen meditation. European Journal of Applied Physiology 2005, 95(1): 88-95
• Büssing A, Ostermann T, Matthiessen PF: Role of religion and spirituality in medical patients: Confirmatory results with the SpREUK questionnaire. BMC Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2005; 3:10

FRIAS Research Project

The support of psychosocial and spiritual needs and resources in medicine: To the benefit of chronic patients, their relatives and their medical carers

The research group brings together theology and medicine in a particular, medically relevant context. The aim is to contribute to the understanding of psychosocial and spiritual needs and resources in health care – with particular focus on patients suffering from chronic diseases as well as their relatives and the health professionals that care for them – in order that they may gain the best assistance as they cope with their disease. Through the particular focus on the needs of patients the project seeks to support and value the way patients deal with chronic disease. Moreover, the project will also focus on patients´ relatives and health professionals, and their ways of coping with stress in their various attentions to the needs of patients. In its interdisciplinary work the research group will dedicate itself to basic research, translation into innovative research, evaluation of interventions, and recommendations for the implementation in the health care professions. It will actively work towards the enhancement of research networks in the secular, religiously pluralistic European context, beginning with Denmark and Germany, so that through interdisciplinary dialogue the quality of research in this field, so relevant for the quality of life and the health care system at large, may be advanced and stabilized.