Self-rated importance of religion predicts one-year outcome of patients with panic disorder

"So, Do Not Fear": Religion and the prevalence, persistence, and severity of anxiety disorders among Black Americans

BACKGROUND

There is a dearth of scholarship that explicates the effects of religious participation on anxiety disorders among Black Americans. A better understanding of the links between religious participation, a coping resource, and anxiety disorders among Black Americans remains essential, given Black Americans are less likely than their white counterparts to seek professional treatment for mental health problems, leading to greater unmet mental health needs. The aim of this study was to investigate whether religious participation is associated with the prevalence, persistence, and severity of anxiety disorders among Black adults.

METHODS

We used a national sample of Black adults (N = 4999) from the National Survey of American Life, a cross-sectional study conducted from 2001 to 2003. Five anxiety disorders were assessed: posttraumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and agoraphobia. Three dimensions of religious participation were assessed: organizational, non-organizational, and subjective religious participation. Weighted logistic and linear regressions were estimated to examine the associations between religious participation and anxiety disorders.

RESULTS

Findings indicate that organizational religious participation and subjective religiosity were associated with lower odds of anxiety disorders and decreased severity. Findings for non-organizational religious participation in relation to the prevalence, persistence, and severity of anxiety disorders were mixed.

LIMITATIONS

The study limitations include the utilization of self-reported measures, cross-sectional study design, and age of the data set.

CONCLUSIONS

Different dimensions of religious participation have differing effects on anxiety disorders. Religious participation may be an important resource for Black Americans in coping and preventing anxiety disorders.

Spiritual Orientation, Meaning in Life, Life Satisfaction, and Well-Being in Mothers with Disabled Children

This study was planned in order to investigate the relationship between spiritual orientation with meaning in life, life satisfaction and well-being in mothers with disabled children. The research was carried out with 128 mothers in a private rehabilitation center at eastern Turkey. The Spiritual Orientation Scale (SOS), Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), Life Satisfaction Scale (LSS), and Well-Being Index (WBI) were used in the data collection. The mean score of the mothers on the SOS was found to be high (89.34 ± 7.14). It was determined that as the mean scores of mothers on the SOS increased, their mean scores on MLQ, LSS, and WBI increased and that the relationship between them was significant (p < 0.05). It was found that as the spiritual orientation of the mothers increased, meaning in life, life satisfaction, and well-being increased as well.

Can Religious Coping and Depressive Symptoms Predict Clinical Outcome and Quality of Life in Panic Disorder? A Brazilian Longitudinal Study

Few studies have investigated the relationship between spiritual/religious coping (S/R coping) and panic disorder (PD). This Brazilian longitudinal study evaluated if S/R coping and depressive symptoms can predict PD remission and improved quality of life (QoL). There were 101 outpatients with PD who were followed up for 12 to 16 weeks. The prevalence ratio (PR) between positive S/R coping and negative S/R coping and PD remission was assessed, as well as the association between positive S/R coping and negative S/R coping and QoL. After adjusting for confounding factors, positive S/R coping presented an inverse PR with PD remission, which was not statistically significant (0.88; p = 0.075). There was no association between S/R coping and QoL. Depressive symptoms were negatively associated with PD remission (PR = 0.97; p < 0.01) and were not predictive of a better QoL.

Spiritual Factors Predict State and Trait Anxiety

This research study was designed to examine the effect of spiritual well-being and spirituality on state and trait anxiety. Two hundred and thirty-eight adults in the USA were surveyed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Duke University Religion Index, Spiritual Well-Being Scale, and Participant Questionnaire. Results indicate that spiritual well-being can predict 39.1 % of an adult's state anxiety and 37.9 % of trait anxiety. Furthermore, frequency of religious attendance, frequency of private religious activity, and intrinsic religiosity can predict 6.2 % of an adult's state anxiety and 8.6 % of trait anxiety. Recommendations for researchers and implications for clinicians are discussed.

Exploration of Relationship Between Stress and Spirituality Characteristics of Male and Female Engineering Students: A Comprehensive Study

This observational paper endeavours to recognize the connection between spirituality and stress. Four types of indicators are utilized for the estimation of anxiety, vis-à-vis, behavioural indicators, emotional indicators, sleep indicators and personal habits. As per pre-documented theory, if spirituality is high within an individual, then his/her stress will be low and vice versa. In college, the stress of education and scoring grades influences the understudy. Information is gathered through a survey in the light of spirituality index and stress index. Findings prove that the indicators of the stress are more visible in female students. Apart from this, there has been not much substantial study in the area of stress and spirituality among college students. Hence, the main purpose of this study was to discuss the various types of stress and effects of spirituality on the engineering students belonging to the age group of 21-26 years, prioritizing the indicators of stress as per the gender of students. The entire study constituted of a sample group of 200 participants, and for the entire process, correlation analysis was used to find the relative relation between spirituality and stress among girls and boys. T test is used for rejection of the null hypothesis. The article focuses on the current issues that students have been facing in the twenty-first century. Result of the study showed that there is a negative relationship between the spirituality and stress of male and female students. Moreover, the article provides unique contribution to the literature and also offers suggestions for generating new research ideas that can be used to ameliorate the problems that plague individuals and organizations in today's world. This is the first article which covers the spirituality and stress of the engineering student and discusses the impact on young adults, as well as highlighting certain ways to overcome stress and enhance spirituality.

A Critical Comprehensive Review of Religiosity and Anxiety Disorders in Adults

Over the past three decades, there has been increasing research with respect to the relation of religion and mental health disorders. Consequently, the current article aims to first provide a comprehensive literature review of the interplay between different domains of religiosity and a wide variety of categorical anxiety disorders in adults, and secondly, to uncover the major methodological flaws often yielding mixed, contradictory and unreliable results. The search was conducted using the PubMed/Medline database and included papers published between 1970 and 2012, under a rigorous set of inclusion/exclusion criteria. A total of ten publications were retained as part of the current study, and three main outcomes were identified: (1) certain aspects of religiosity and specific religious interventions have mostly had a protective impact on generalized anxiety disorder (40% of the studies); (2) other domains of religiosity demonstrated no association with post-traumatic stress disorder (30% of the studies); and (3) mixed results were seen for panic and phobic disorders.

Religion and health: anxiety, religiosity, meaning of life and mental health

We examined the association among anxiety, religiosity, meaning of life and mental health in a nonclinical sample from a Chinese society. Four hundred fifty-one Taiwanese adults (150 males and 300 females) ranging in age from 17 to 73 years (M = 28.9, SD = 11.53) completed measures of Beck Anxiety Inventory, Medical Outcomes Study Health Survey, Perceived Stress Scale, Social Support Scale, and Personal Religiosity Scale (measuring religiosity and meaning of life). Meaning of life has a significant negative correlation with anxiety and a significant positive correlation with mental health and religiosity; however, religiosity does not correlate significantly anxiety and mental health after controlling for demographic measures, social support and physical health. Anxiety explains unique variance in mental health above meaning of life. Meaning of life was found to partially mediate the relationship between anxiety and mental health. These findings suggest that benefits of meaning of life for mental health can be at least partially accounted for by the effects of underlying anxiety.

Influence of religious aspects and personal beliefs on psychological behavior: focus on anxiety disorders

The current paper presents literature relevant to the relationship of religiosity, spirituality, and personal beliefs with mental health and, in particular, anxiety disorders as an empirical narrative review, providing an overview on the most important and clinically relevant research results on the topic. The relationship between religiosity/spirituality, personal beliefs (ie, magical ideation and paranormal beliefs), and mental health has lately been studied extensively, and results have indicated significant associations among these variables. However, scientific approaches to this field are complex and multidimensional, partly leading to poor operationalization, incomparable data, and contradictory results. Literature demonstrates that higher religiosity/spirituality and magical ideation scores have often been associated with increased obsessive–compulsive traits. Similar results could not be confidently replicated for other anxiety disorders. However, it is still unclear if these differences suggest a specific association with obsessive–compulsive traits and reflect deviating etiopathogenetic and cognitive aspects between obsessive–compulsive disorder and other anxiety disorders, or if these results are biased through other factors. Religiosity/spirituality and personal beliefs constitute important parameters of human experience and deserve greater consideration in the psychotherapeutic treatment of psychiatric disorders.

Religiosity and longitudinal change in psychosocial functioning in adult offspring of depressed parents at high risk for major depression

BACKGROUND

Recent findings suggest that beliefs about religious or spiritual importance or attending religious/spiritual services may protect high-risk offspring against depression. This research has not extended to examining religiosity in relation to psychosocial functioning in high-risk offspring.

METHODS

Offspring selected for having a depressed parent and offspring of nondepressed parents were evaluated for lifetime major depressive disorder (MDD) in childhood and adolescence, and at 10-year (T10) and 20-year (T20) follow-ups. Relations between self-reported religiosity at T10 and longitudinal change in psychosocial function from T10 to T20 (assessed by clinical ratings on Global Assessment Scale [GAS]) were examined separately in 109 daughters and 76 sons by risk status.

RESULTS

Lifetime MDD was diagnosed in 57.8% of daughters and 40.8% of sons by T20. Among daughters, only those with lifetime MDD showed improved psychosocial functioning in relation to higher level of service attendance at T10, their mean GAS score improving by 3.5 points (P = .018) over the next decade. For daughters with and without lifetime MDD, relations between higher levels of religiosity and improved psychosocial function were of greater magnitude in those with a depressed parent. Among sons, only those with lifetime MDD showed improved psychosocial function in relation to higher level of religious/spiritual importance, their mean GAS score improving by 4.6 points (P < .0001) over the next decade; that relation was of greater magnitude in sons with both lifetime MDD and a depressed parent.

CONCLUSIONS

Greater improvement in psychosocial functioning in relation to religious involvement in more vulnerable offspring supports religiosity as a resilience factor.

Cooccurrence des croyances religieuses, superstitieuses et de type délirant

Il existe peu de données expérimentales faisant le lien entre les croyances religieuses, superstitieuses et de type délirant, malgré que ces croyances aient un point commun : le fait qu’elles reposent sur peu ou pas de preuves. Ceci suggère qu’elles pourraient partager un mécanisme cognitif commun et donc être observées chez les mêmes individus. Pour tester cette dernière hypothèse, nous avons fait remplir des questionnaires d’idées de type délirant, de religiosité, et de superstition à 95 participants sans antécédents psychiatriques. Globalement, les croyances superstitieuses corrèlent positivement avec les croyances religieuses et les idées de type délirant et tendent donc à apparaître chez les mêmes individus. Cependant, les idées de type délirant ne sont que partiellement liées aux croyances religieuses. La relation entre les idées de type délirant et la religiosité demeure ambiguë.

A test of faith in God and treatment: the relationship of belief in God to psychiatric treatment outcomes

BACKGROUND

Belief in God is very common and tied to mental health/illness in the general population, yet its relevance to psychiatric patients has not been adequately studied. We examined relationships between belief in God and treatment outcomes, and identified mediating mechanisms.

METHODS

We conducted a prospective study with n=159 patients in a day-treatment program at an academic psychiatric hospital. Belief in God, treatment credibility/expectancy, emotion regulation and congregational support were assessed prior to treatment. Primary outcomes were treatment response as well as degree of reduction in depression over treatment. Secondary outcomes were improvements in psychological well-being and reduction in self-harm.

RESULTS

Belief in God was significantly higher among treatment responders than non-responders F(1,114)=4.81, p<.05. Higher levels of belief were also associated with greater reductions in depression (r=.21, p<.05) and self-harm (r=.24, p<.01), and greater improvements in psychological well-being (r=.19, p<.05) over course of treatment. Belief remained correlated with changes in depression and self-harm after controlling for age and gender. Perceived treatment credibility/expectancy, but not emotional regulation or community support, mediated relationships between belief in God and reductions in depression. No variables mediated relationships to other outcomes. Religious affiliation was also associated with treatment credibility/expectancy but not treatment outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Belief in God, but not religious affiliation, was associated with better treatment outcomes. With respect to depression, this relationship was mediated by belief in the credibility of treatment and expectations for treatment gains.

Understanding and addressing religion among people with mental illness

This article reviews recent advances in the domain of psychiatry and religion that highlight the double-edged capacity of religion to enhance or damage health and well-being, particularly among psychiatric patients. A large body of research challenges stereotyped views of religion as merely a defense or passive way of coping, and indicates that many people look to religion as a vital resource which serves a variety of adaptive functions, such as self-regulation, attachment, emotional comfort, meaning, and spirituality. There is, however, a darker side to religious life. Researchers and theorists have identified and begun to study problematic aspects of religiousness, including religiously-based violence and religious struggles within oneself, with others, and with the divine. Religious problems can be understood as a by-product of psychiatric illness (secondary), a source of psychiatric illness (primary), or both (complex). This growing body of knowledge underscores the need to attend more fully to the potentially constructive and destructive roles of religion in psychiatric diagnosis, assessment, and treatment. In fact, initial evaluative studies of the impact of spiritually integrated treatments among a range of psychiatric populations have shown promising results. The article concludes with a set of recommendations to advance future research and practice, including the need for additional psychiatric studies of people from diverse cultures and religious traditions.

Religiosity, magical ideation, and paranormal beliefs in anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder: a cross-sectional study

The relation between religiosity/spirituality (R/S), personal beliefs, and mental health has been extensively studied. However, concerning anxiety disorders (ADs), empirical evidence is scarce. This study investigated the differences in R/S and magical/paranormal ideation among obsessive-compulsive disorder patients (OCD; n = 49), patients with other ADs (n = 36), and healthy controls (HCs; n = 35). Our results suggest negative religious coping as being the only parameter showing significantly higher scores in OCD and AD participants in comparison with HCs. Negative religious coping reflects negative functional expressions of R/S in stressful situations. Logistic regression also suggested negative religious coping as the strongest predictor of group affiliation to the nonhealthy group. Further results show no significant differences between other R/S, magical, and paranormal ideation traits among groups. This study underlines an important role of negative religious coping in ADs yet does not clearly indicate a specific causality. Religious-sensitive treatment targeting cognitive aspects of negative religious coping are discussed.

Religious versus Conventional Psychotherapy for Major Depression in Patients with Chronic Medical Illness: Rationale, Methods, and Preliminary Results

This paper (1) reviews the physical and religious barriers to CBT that disabled medically ill-depressed patients face, (2) discusses research on the relationship between religion and depression-induced physiological changes, (3) describes an ongoing randomized clinical trial of religious versus secular CBT in chronically ill patients with mild-to-moderate major depression designed to (a) overcome physical and religious barriers to CBT and (b) compare the efficacy of religious versus secular CBT in relieving depression and improving immune and endocrine functions, and (4) presents preliminary results that illustrate the technical difficulties that have been encountered in implementing this trial. CBT is being delivered remotely via instant messaging, telephone, or Skype, and Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu versions of religious CBT are being developed. The preliminary results described here are particular to the technologies employed in this study and are not results from the CBT clinical trial whose findings will be published in the future after the study ends and data are analyzed. The ultimate goal is to determine if a psychotherapy delivered remotely that integrates patients' religious resources improves depression more quickly than a therapy that ignores them, and whether religious CBT is more effective than conventional CBT in reversing depression-induced physiological changes.

Research on religion, spirituality, and mental health: a review

Religious and spiritual factors are increasingly being examined in psychiatric research. Religious beliefs and practices have long been linked to hysteria, neurosis, and psychotic delusions. However, recent studies have identified another side of religion that may serve as a psychological and social resource for coping with stress. After defining the terms religion and spirituality, this paper reviews research on the relation between religion and (or) spirituality, and mental health, focusing on depression, suicide, anxiety, psychosis, and substance abuse. The results of an earlier systematic review are discussed, and more recent studies in the United States, Canada, Europe, and other countries are described. While religious beliefs and practices can represent powerful sources of comfort, hope, and meaning, they are often intricately entangled with neurotic and psychotic disorders, sometimes making it difficult to determine whether they are a resource or a liability.