Most studies have found religion/spirituality to be protective against suicide risk, with a stronger effect among women. To understand this effect, theories of suicide and clinical samples are needed, but related studies are lacking. We applied two established suicide models in 753 psychiatric inpatients. Religion/spirituality correlated protectively with components of the suicide models, with ...

OBJECTIVE Youth suicide attempters are high-risk for suicide. Many have untreated mental disorders and are not receiving services. It is crucial to understand potential influences associated with service use. Spirituality/religion are one influence in youths' mental health service trajectories. This study explored youths' experiences of spirituality/religion as it relates to their help-seeking ...

At the start of the twenty-first century, Catholicism is still the prevailing belief system of most Italians, but a recent project on Italian religion and spirituality, 5 carried out in 2006, has found that Italians are now more interested in spirituality, that they might describe themselves as ‘spiritual, but not religious’, and that they privilege the ‘god within’ rather than the transcendent...

The role of spirituality in recovery from mental illness has gained increased attention in recent years. In this article, the authors present an update on previous work exploring the role and function of religion/spirituality in the lives of people participating in a psychiatric rehabilitation program (Bussema & Bussema, 2000). Fifty-eight (58) participants age 18 to 64 completed a spirituality...

In 2004, one of us (PJV) wrote a discussion paper entitled ‘Religion, spirituality and psychiatry: A field wide open for discussion and research’ [1] and in 2005, on behalf of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry (SRSP), this was circulated amongst colleagues around the world as a basis for discussion. Amongst other groups, this paper was sent...

Religion is a conduit for expressing spirituality. Since most mainstream religions condemn any form of homosexuality one would expect that gay men and lesbians would have little to do with spirituality. Experts, however, believe that gay and lesbian individuals would especially benefit from spiritual nourishment because of the oppression they face. Using an instrument that measures spiritual we...

Background: Religion is often included in the beliefs and experiences of psychotic patients, and therefore becomes the target of psychiatric interventions. Objectives: This article examines religious beliefs and activities among nonpsychotic persons in the United States, Brazil and other areas of the world; discusses historical factors contributing to the wall of separation between religion and...

Key themes in narratives of recovery from mental illness illustrate some of the functions of religion and spirituality in consumers' self-understanding and coping.