This resource provides evidence-based guidance on the implications of religion and spirituality on mental health.

Alexander Moreira-Almeida, MD, PhD, is Associate Professor of Psychiatry, founder and director of NUPES, the Research Center in Spirituality and Health, at the School of Medicine, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Brazil. Chair of and coordinator of the section on spirituality of the Brazilian Psychiatric Association. Chair of the Sections on Spirituality of the Latin American (APAL) and the Brazilian (ABP) Psychiatric Associations. Former chair of the WPA (World Psychiatric Association) Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry (2014-17 and 2017-2020) where he coordinated the proposal and approval of the WPA Position Statement on Spirituality and Religion in Psychiatry that has been translated into Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch, Chinese, Hindi, and Arabic.
Bruno Paz Mosqueiro is a Psychiatrist at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil
Professor Dinesh Bhugra is Emeritus Professor of Mental Health and Cultural Diversity at King's College, London. He was Dean (Lead Educational Officer) of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (2003-2008) and then President of the Royal College (2008-2011). He was Vice-Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges with remit for education for doctors of all grades and specialities. During this period he led on College's campaign for Fair Deal for people with mental illness. He established strategy for public mental health. As President of the BMA (2018-2019) he led on a large survey of mental health and well-being of medical students globally, a campaign for equity between physical and mental health and Medicine's social contract.

• Introduction


• Section I Theory


• 1: Alexander Moreira-Almeida and Dinesh Bhugra: Religion, Spirituality, and Mental Health: Setting the scene


• 2: German Berrios and Ivana S. Marková: Western Spirituality: A Historical Epistemology


• 3: Andreas Sommer: Conflicts and Complexities: Medical Science, Exceptional Experiences, and the Perils of Simplistic History


• 4: Harald Walach: Can Spirituality be a Scientific Topic And How? A Rigorous But Open Minded Scientific Approach of Studies on Religion, Spirituality and Mental Health


• 5: Leonardo Machado and Alexander Moreira-Almeida: Differentiating spiritual experiences from mental disorders


• 6: Etzel Cardeña and Lena Lindström: The Light and the Bulb: The Psychology and Neurophysiology of Mystical Experience


• 7: Giancarlo Lucchetti, Rodolfo Furlan Damiano, Alessandra Lamas Granero Lucchetti, and Mario Fernando Prieto Peres: Evidence for the impact of religiosity and spirituality on mental health


• 8: Harold G. Koenig: Mechanisms: How Religion Impacts Mental Health


• 9: Dinesh Bhugra, Cameron Watson, and Susham Gupta: Sexual minorities and spirituality


• Section II General principles of religions and relationship with mental health


• 10: Alison J. Gray and Christopher C.H. Cook: Christianity and Mental Health


• 11: Ahmed Okasha and Tarek A. Okasha: Islam and Mental Health


• 12: Matcheri S. Keshavan, Bangalore N. Gangadhar, and Ananda K. Pandurangi: Hinduism


• 13: Malcolm Huxter and Leandro Pizzuti: Principles and practices of Buddhism in relationship to mental health


• 14: Haim Belmaker, Rael Strous, and Pesach Lichtenberg: Judaism


• 15: Miguel Farias and Thomas J. Coleman III: Nonreligion, Atheism and Mental Health


• 16: Olatunde Ayinde, Akin Ojagbemi, Victor Makanjuola, and Oye Gureje: African Religions, Spirituality and Mental Health Healing Practices


• 17: Bruno Paz Mosqueiro: Spiritual But Not Religious


• Section III Clinical Practice


• 18: Christopher C.H. Cook and Alexander Moreira-Almeida: Principles of integrating religion and spirituality in mental health care and the WPA Position Statement


• 19: Larkin Kao and John Peteet: Spiritually and culturally sensitive evidence-based approaches to taking a spiritual history


• 20: Arjan W. Braam: Religion, Spirituality in Prevention and Promotion in Mental Health


• 21: Simone Hauck and C. Robert Cloninger: Positive Psychiatry and Psychology and Spirituality


• 22: Marianna de Abreu Costa and David Rosmarin: Spiritually integrated psychotherapy


• 23: Kenneth I. Pargament and Julie J. Exline: Religious and Spiritual Struggles and Mental Health:Implications for Clinical Practice


• 24: Peter Fenwick and Bruno Paz Mosqueiro: Spirituality and End of Life Experiences: Meeting the Spiritual Needs of the Dying


• 25: Wai Lun Alan Fung, Victor A. Shepherd, King Yee Agatha Chong, Sujatha D. Sharma, and Avdesh Sharma: Fruitful collaborations with religious and spiritual communities to foster mental health on general society examples from around the world