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Religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials

BACKGROUND. Despite the extensive literature assessing associations between religiosity/spirituality and health, few studies have investigated the clinical applicability of this evidence. The purpose of this paper was to assess the impact of religious/spiritual interventions (RSI) through randomized...

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Autores principales: Gonçalves, J. P. B., Lucchetti, G., Menezes, P. R., Vallada, H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4595860/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26200715
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291715001166
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author Gonçalves, J. P. B.
Lucchetti, G.
Menezes, P. R.
Vallada, H.
author_facet Gonçalves, J. P. B.
Lucchetti, G.
Menezes, P. R.
Vallada, H.
author_sort Gonçalves, J. P. B.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND. Despite the extensive literature assessing associations between religiosity/spirituality and health, few studies have investigated the clinical applicability of this evidence. The purpose of this paper was to assess the impact of religious/spiritual interventions (RSI) through randomized clinical trials (RCTs). METHOD. A systematic review was performed in the following databases: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Cochrane Collaboration, Embase and SciELO. Through the use of a Boolean expression, articles were included if they: (i) investigated mental health outcomes; (ii) had a design consistent with RCTs. We excluded protocols involving intercessory prayer or distance healing. The study was conducted in two phases by reading: (1) title and abstracts; (2) full papers and assessing their methodological quality. Then, a meta-analysis was carried out. RESULTS. Through this method, 4751 papers were obtained, of which 23 remained included. The meta-analysis showed significant effects of RSI on anxiety general symptoms (p < 0.001) and in subgroups: meditation (p < 0.001); psychotherapy (p = 0.02); 1 month of follow-up (p < 0.001); and comparison groups with interventions (p < 0.001). Two significant differences were found in depressive symptoms: between 1 and 6 months and comparison groups with interventions (p = 0.05). In general, studies have shown that RSI decreased stress, alcoholism and depression. CONCLUSIONS. RCTs on RSI showed additional benefits including reduction of clinical symptoms (mainly anxiety). The diversity of protocols and outcomes associated with a lack of standardization of interventions point to the need for further studies evaluating the use of religiosity/spirituality as a complementary treatment in health care.
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spelling pubmed-45958602015-10-09 Religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials Gonçalves, J. P. B. Lucchetti, G. Menezes, P. R. Vallada, H. Psychol Med Review Article BACKGROUND. Despite the extensive literature assessing associations between religiosity/spirituality and health, few studies have investigated the clinical applicability of this evidence. The purpose of this paper was to assess the impact of religious/spiritual interventions (RSI) through randomized clinical trials (RCTs). METHOD. A systematic review was performed in the following databases: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Cochrane Collaboration, Embase and SciELO. Through the use of a Boolean expression, articles were included if they: (i) investigated mental health outcomes; (ii) had a design consistent with RCTs. We excluded protocols involving intercessory prayer or distance healing. The study was conducted in two phases by reading: (1) title and abstracts; (2) full papers and assessing their methodological quality. Then, a meta-analysis was carried out. RESULTS. Through this method, 4751 papers were obtained, of which 23 remained included. The meta-analysis showed significant effects of RSI on anxiety general symptoms (p < 0.001) and in subgroups: meditation (p < 0.001); psychotherapy (p = 0.02); 1 month of follow-up (p < 0.001); and comparison groups with interventions (p < 0.001). Two significant differences were found in depressive symptoms: between 1 and 6 months and comparison groups with interventions (p = 0.05). In general, studies have shown that RSI decreased stress, alcoholism and depression. CONCLUSIONS. RCTs on RSI showed additional benefits including reduction of clinical symptoms (mainly anxiety). The diversity of protocols and outcomes associated with a lack of standardization of interventions point to the need for further studies evaluating the use of religiosity/spirituality as a complementary treatment in health care. Cambridge University Press 2015-10 2015-07-23 /pmc/articles/PMC4595860/ /pubmed/26200715 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291715001166 Text en © Cambridge University Press 2015 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Article
Gonçalves, J. P. B.
Lucchetti, G.
Menezes, P. R.
Vallada, H.
Religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials
title Religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials
title_full Religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials
title_fullStr Religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials
title_full_unstemmed Religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials
title_short Religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials
title_sort religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4595860/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26200715
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291715001166
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