Religiousness and mental health: a review.

By A. Moreira-Almeida, F. L. Neto, H. Koenig. Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria, 2006

775 citations recorded by the source corpus.

OBJECTIVE The relationship between religiosity and mental health has been a perennial source of controversy. This paper reviews the scientific evidence available for the relationship between religion and mental health. METHOD The authors present the main studies and conclusions of a larger systematic review of 850 studies on the religion-mental health relationship published during the 20th Century identified through several databases. The present paper also includes an update on the papers published since 2000, including researches performed in Brazil and a brief historical and methodological background. DISCUSSION The majority of well-conducted studies found that higher levels of religious involvement are positively associated with indicators of psychological well-being (life satisfaction, happiness, positive affect, and higher morale) and with less depression, suicidal thoughts and behavior, drug/alcohol use/abuse. Usually the positive impact of religious involvement on mental health is more robust among people under stressful circumstances (the elderly, and those with disability and medical illness). Theoretical pathways of the religiousness-mental health connection and clinical implications of these findings are also discussed. CONCLUSIONS There is evidence that religious involvement is usually associated with better mental health. We need to improve our understanding of the mediating factors of this association and its use in clinical practice.

Subfields: Health, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2bbb5564923e73ddb796fdaeae6d39f2742cfb1a

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Citations in the corpus

The Management of Courtesy Stigma in the Lives of Families With Teenagers With ADHD (2009, background): “Beliefs and cognitive processes can assist individuals in coping and in managing stigma (Moreira-Almeida et al., 2006).”
Positive Religious Coping and Mental Health among Christians and Muslims in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020, background): “National surveys repeatedly report high rates of comorbidity between depression and substance-related disorders (Moreira-Almeida et al. 2006); one interpretation of this relationship is that substance abuse represents a risk factor for the development of depression.”
Spirituality and Resilience in Trauma Victims (2007, background): “In most cases, they have found that higher levels of religious involvement are associated with greater well being and mental health ( Moreira-Almeida, Lotufo Neto, & Koenig, 2006 ).”
Economic de-growth vs. steady-state economy (2010, background): “being religious) has been shown to be beneficial to psychological well-being and health [109] (24).”