Spirituality and behavioural addictions: narrative review

Mitika Kanabar; Preethy Kathiresan; Hussien Elkholy; Arash Khojasteh Zonoozi; Laura Orsolini; Jiang Long; Mehdi Farokhnia; Roshan Bhad; Jenna L Butner; Francina Fonseca; Vicky Phan; Sophia Achab; Marc N Potenza

doi:10.1192/bji.2024.9

Spirituality and behavioural addictions: narrative review

BJPsych Int. 2024 Aug;21(3):59-61. doi: 10.1192/bji.2024.9.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Physician Director of Education, Southern California Permanente Medical Group, Lancaster, California, USA.
² Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
³ Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
⁴ Iranian National Center for Addiction Studies, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁵ Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Unit of Clinical Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences/DIMSC, Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Italy.
⁶ Psychiatrist, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
⁷ National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
⁸ National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
⁹ Assistant Professor Adjunct of Medicine (General Medicine), Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
¹⁰ Head of Addiction Program, Mental Health and Research Institute, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain.
¹¹ Addiction Psychiatrist, Turning Point Eastern Treatment Services, Melbourne, Australia.
¹² Head of Addictive Behaviours, Centre ReConnecte, Addiction Division, Department of Psychiatry, University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹³ Departments of Psychiatry, Child Study Center, and Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

Abstract

The relationship between spirituality and behavioural addictions is complex. Although some studies have suggested spirituality to be a protective factor helping in recovery from addictive behaviours, others have found spirituality to be a potential risk factor. To better understand the relationship between spirituality and various behavioural addictions, this review summarises the literature on the association between spirituality and the following behavioural addictions: gaming disorder, gambling disorder, problematic internet use, problematic smartphone use, compulsive sexual behaviour disorder and compulsive buying/shopping disorder. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed.

Keywords: Mental health services; patients and service users; philosophy; psychosocial interventions; transcultural psychiatry.

Publication types

Review