How Spirituality May Mitigate Against Stress and Related Mental Disorders: a Review and Preliminary Neurobiological Evidence

Spiritual coping behaviors among injured urban black men in Philadelphia

PURPOSE

High rates of firearm injury among urban Black men in the US can lead to long physical and psychological recovery times, worsened by limited access to mental health services. Spirituality can propel positive thoughts, actions, perceptions and behaviors about self and others yet how it is used among Black men recovering from firearm injury is underexplored. This study examined the role of spirituality in the recovery of Black male survivors of firearm injury.

METHOD

Ten injured urban Black men in Philadelphia were interviewed using descriptive phenomenology. A subset of participants from the Emotional Responses and Recovery from Injury in Urban Black Men study who agreed to be recontacted for future studies were enrolled. Informed consent was obtained, semi-structured interviews were conducted via phone and were audiotaped, transcribed, and de-identified. Thematic content analysis was used to understand perceptions of spirituality and to identify spiritual coping behavior themes.

RESULTS

Findings suggest that injured urban Black men engaged in theistic and non-theistic spiritual activities that resulted in positive character development, reduced risk of re-injury, hope, improved mental health and social bonds.

CONCLUSION

Spirituality may serve as a protective factor against firearm re-injury or retaliation by promoting desired behaviors and mental health among injured urban Black men. Combining culturally sensitive spiritual resources and psychotherapy may lead to effective trauma-informed care in addressing spiritual and existential challenges of injured urban Black men who may find spirituality important.

Altruism and "love of neighbor" offer neuroanatomical protection against depression

We prospectively investigate protective benefits against depression of cortical thickness across nine regions of a Ventral Frontotemporal Network (VFTN), previously associated with spiritual experience. Seventy-two participants at high and low risk for depression (Mean age 41 years; 22-63 years; 40 high risk, 32 low risk) were drawn from a three-generation, thirty-eight year study. FreeSurfer estimated cortical thickness over anatomical MRIs of the brain (Year 30) for each of the nine ROIs. Depression (MDD with SAD-L; symptoms with PHQ; Years 30 and 38) and spirituality (self-report on five phenotypes; Year 35), respectively, were associated with the weighted average of nine regions of interest. VFTN thickness was: 1) positively associated (p<0.01) with two of five spiritual phenotypes, altruism and love of neighbor, interconnectedness at a trend level, but neither commitment nor practice, 2) inversely associated with a diagnosis of MDD (SADS-L Year 30, for any MDD in the past ten years), and 3) prospectively neuroanatomically protective against depressive symptoms (PHQ-9 Year 38) for those at high familial risk.

The role of spirituality in addiction medicine: a position statement from the spirituality interest group of the international society of addiction medicine

Spirituality is a construct that is reflected in a diversity of strongly felt personal commitments in different cultural and national groups. For persons with substance use disorders (SUDs), it can serve as a component of the recovery capital available to them. This position statement reviews empirical research that can shed light on psychological, social, and biological aspects of this construct. On this basis, the Spirituality Interest Group of the International Society of Addiction Medicine (ISAM) makes recommendations for how this construct can be incorporated into research and clinical care.