A Critical Comprehensive Review of Religiosity and Anxiety Disorders in Adults

J Relig Health. 2015 Aug;54(4):1438-50. doi: 10.1007/s10943-014-9981-5.

Abstract

Over the past three decades, there has been increasing research with respect to the relation of religion and mental health disorders. Consequently, the current article aims to first provide a comprehensive literature review of the interplay between different domains of religiosity and a wide variety of categorical anxiety disorders in adults, and secondly, to uncover the major methodological flaws often yielding mixed, contradictory and unreliable results. The search was conducted using the PubMed/Medline database and included papers published between 1970 and 2012, under a rigorous set of inclusion/exclusion criteria. A total of ten publications were retained as part of the current study, and three main outcomes were identified: (1) certain aspects of religiosity and specific religious interventions have mostly had a protective impact on generalized anxiety disorder (40% of the studies); (2) other domains of religiosity demonstrated no association with post-traumatic stress disorder (30% of the studies); and (3) mixed results were seen for panic and phobic disorders.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Anxiety Disorders / psychology*
  • Humans
  • Religion and Psychology*