Friday, November 13, 2009

Empirically supported religious and spiritual therapies

This article evaluated the efficacy status of religious and spiritual (R/S) therapies for mental health problems, including treatments for depression, anxiety, unforgiveness, eating disorders, schizophrenia, alcoholism, anger, and marital issues.

Religions represented included Christianity, Islam, Taoism, and Buddhism. Some studies incorporated a generic spirituality.

Several R/S therapies were found to be helpful for clients, supporting the further use and research on these therapies. There was limited evidence that R/S therapies outperformed established secular therapies, thus the decision to use an R/S therapy may be an issue of client preference and therapist comfort.

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Rerquest Reprint E-Mail: eworth@vcu.edu
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