Volume 5 Issue 12 December 2015
Role of Spirituality in Mental Health
‘The greatest error of our day is physicians separate the body and mind, when they treat the body.’ – Plato
Spirituality involves personal beliefs about purpose of one’s life, sense of connectedness to the universe and practices for searching the meaning of life. While religion is institutionalized spirituality with different sets of beliefs, traditions, and doctrines.
Traditionally religion does not have place in most of the psychiatry books. Very few psychiatrists use religion and spirituality in their therapeutic endeavors. Contemporary research demonstrated largely positive associations between spirituality (or/and religiosity) and mental well-being in form of positive mental health and better outcomes of depression, anxiety, psychosis, suicidality and substance abuse. Therefore modern psychiatry has put some emphasis on addressing religious and spiritual beliefs for holistic patient care. Many international medical and psychiatric organizations have accepted spirituality as an important component of their training and comprehensive treatment.
Hence we should respect patients’ religious and spiritual beliefs if these help them to cope better and we should also challenge their beliefs that can adversely affect mental health.
Assistant Professor, AIIMS Jodhpur (Raj)
