Religion and Mental Health : Current Findings

In the past twenty years there has been increasing attention given to the relationships between various dimensions of religiosity and mental health. By now several thousand studies have been conducted demonstrating positive associations between the two (Koenig, King and Carson 2012). On balance those who are more religious have better indices of mental health. The vast majority have been cross-sectional and have focused on religious attendance and beliefs among North American Christians. There has been far less work examining ritual, prayer and other aspects of being religious (e.g. Dein and Littlewood 2007, Dein 2010). On balance being religious results in more hope and optimism and life satisfaction (Koenig 2009), less depression and faster remission of depression (Koenig 2007, Smith, McCullough and Poll 2003), lower rates of suicide (Van Praag 2009), reduced prevalence of drug and alcohol abuse (Cook, Goddard and Westall 1997) and reduced delinquency (Johnson, Larson and McCullough 2000). Findings in relation to anxiety are mixed. Although some studies demonstrate reduced anxiety rates, others indicate that anxiety levels are heightened in the more religious (Koenig, King and Carson 2012, Shrieve Neiger and Edelstein 2004)). Work on schizophrenia is still embryonic; recent studies however in Switzerland suggest that religious individuals with psychotic illnesses frequently deploy prayer and Bible reading to help them cope with their voices, and higher levels of religiosity may increase medication compliance ( Mohr et al. 2006, Mohr et al. 2007). Rates of religious delusions in schizophrenia in the UK remain high (Siddle et al. 2002).