Harold Koenig

..Although religion and spirituality are prominent in the lives of Black women with type 2 diabetes (T2DM), there is little research on the relationships of religion and spirituality to glycemic control (GC) in this population...

..These Congregational Health Ministries (CHMs) emphasize health promotion and disease prevention. We compared the perceptions of pastors with and without organized CHMs and the characteristics of their congregations' health ministries...

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..Finally, I explore what the findings mean, how the media portrayed the findings, and problems that might result depending on how people applied those findings...

..Improvements in MDD and physical illness track closely together. Characteristics during baseline hospitalization predict outcome trajectory after discharge, and may be useful in understanding etiology and directing treatment...

..The effects of religious belief and activity on remission of depression were examined in medically ill hospitalized older patients...

..To better understand low treatment (<50%) and psychiatry referral rates (<10%) of depressed older medical patients, we examined medical physicians' characteristics, attitudes and practices regarding treatment...

..53, 95% CI 1.20-1.94, p = 0.0005, n = 839) after controls. Patients highly religious by multiple indicators, particularly those involved in community religious activities, remit faster from depression...

..Although physicians' intuition about depression course was often correct, persistent depression was not recognized in nearly 40% of patients...

..The objective of this study was to examine differences between depressed medical inpatients with congestive heart failure (CHF) and chronic pulmonary disease (CPD) that could impact the etiology and management of depression in this setting...

..High rates of depression are found among hospitalized patients with congestive heart failure. Little is known about the outcome of depression in these patients or factors that influence that outcome...

..These findings help to identify the unique ways in which depressive disorder manifests itself in hospitalized patients with chronic heart and lung disease that may impact their management...

..CHF/CPD patients with major and minor depression have distinct psychosocial and physical characteristics that distinguish one from another...

..The goal is to help physicians provide medical care that is sensitive to the way many patients understand and cope with medical illness...

..The authors examined whether depression is associated with greater use of health services by elderly medical patients before and during hospitalization...

..The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between religious activities and cigarette smoking in community-dwelling older adults...

..Vital status of members was then determined prospectively over the next 6 years (1986 1992). Time (days) to death or censoring in days was analyzed using a Cox proportional hazards regression model...

..To review and discuss some of the research published in the last several decades that has addressed the role that religion plays in helping patients cope with serious medical illness...

..Learning these research skills will at some point become non-optional if chaplaincy is to continue to grow and flourish as a profession and receive the recognition and respect that it deserves...

..We systematically surveyed U.S. medical school deans and assessed both attitudes about and the extent to which spirituality is addressed in medical school curricula...

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..Such associations are meaningless and tautological. Either spirituality should be defined and measured in traditional terms as a unique, uncontaminated construct, or it should be eliminated from use in academic research...

..To examine the effect of religion and spirituality on social support, psychological functioning, and physical health in medically ill hospitalized older adults...

..The impact of religion and spirituality on acute care hospitalization (ACH) and long-term care (LTC) in older patients before, during, and after ACH is not well known...

..Baseline patient characteristics and depression treatments were examined as predictors of speed of depression remission in hospitalized medical patients with chronic pulmonary disease (CPD)...

..Baseline patient characteristics predict which outcome trajectory they are likely to follow after hospital discharge, and may be useful in diagnosis and management...

..These findings encourage further research investigating causal relationships between stress and religion, as well as identifying measures of religiousness that may capture this construct in the medically ill population...

..We investigated whether this association was mediated by social support or mental health status...

..Otherwise, tautology is the result, and it should not be surprising that such measures of R/S (defined by questions tapping mental health) are related to mental health outcomes...

..We undertook a multicentre, prospective trial of two such practices: intercessory prayer and music, imagery, and touch (MIT) therapy...

..This review of selected empirical studies describes religious and spiritual factors that have been examined in their association with the consequences of trauma. A comprehensive model is proposed to explain the complex interrelationship...

..The phenomena of religiousness and spirituality bear on issues of personal behavioral control and interpersonal relationships. Behavioral control and social relationships can be affected by attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)...

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..Further research on the relationship of religion/spirituality to delinquency, depression, suicidality, and anxiety is warranted. Measurement recommendations, research priorities, and clinical implications are discussed...

..These potential explanatory mechanisms include the provision of a community, a narrative framework for meaning-making, a means of coping through submission and redemption, and prescribed lifestyle behaviors...

..We will also identify future research priorities that may provide fruitful research in illuminating the relationship between religion/spirituality and pain...

..If validated in a religiously diverse sample, this approach could be combined with existing, context-free measures of religiousness to generate more meaningful findings...

..Our data suggest correlations between simple mood assessments before PCI and clinical outcomes during and after the procedure. More study is needed to understand whether attempts to alter patient mood can affect clinical outcomes...

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..High levels of stress also have been found to be associated with sexual misconduct among clergy. The authors make several recommendations based on these and other findings they report in their review...

..To describe religious affiliation, importance of religion, and the relationship between religion and self-rated health in persons aged 60 or older living in Latin America or the Caribbean...

..The objective of this study was to examine how the effect of depressive symptoms on cognitive function is modified by church attendance...

..We test the hypothesis that > weekly attendance compared with nonattendance at religious services is associated with lower probability of future mortality in such a study...

..This study compared the ways in which psychiatrists and nonpsychiatrists interpret the relationship between religion/spirituality and health and address religion/spirituality issues in the clinical encounter...

..These findings suggest that it may be more valuable to focus on religious beliefs than on religious practices and behaviors in research on religion and mental health...

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..Clinician education may overcome these barriers and improve ability to more fully meet their patients' expressed needs regarding spirituality and beliefs...

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..Longitudinal studies are needed to help elucidate mechanisms and the order and direction of effects...

..g. punishing God reappraisal, interpersonal religious discontent) were predictive of declines in health. Patients who continue to struggle with religious issues over time may be particularly at risk for health-related problems...

..Other sociodemographically resourcable factors affected both the agency and pathway components of hope as well as dispositional optimism and dispositional pessimism directly or indirectly through their effects on emotional distress...

..The relationship between religiosity and mental health has been a perennial source of controversy. This paper reviews the scientific evidence available for the relationship between religion and mental health...

..Suggestions for future research that would focus on this common medicine/religion interface and concern are noted...

..Religiosity appears to enhance the meaning caregivers get from their work, and this may be beneficial to patients. Further research may identify other factors that enhance the meaning caregivers get from their work...

..The article recommends social work intervention to reduce barriers to church attendance for older adults who want to attend services...

..In particular, we describe the social practices and motives normative for Judaism and certain streams of Christianity. We then discuss the potential relevance of this analysis to emotion, collective identity, and moral judgment...

..It will also provide important information to both guide future clinical trials and identify barriers to effective treatment of depression in these patients. ..