Belief In God Correlates With Better Mental Health Treatment Outcomes

Hatta writes "According to researchers from Harvard Medical School, belief in god is correlated with improved outcomes of treatment for depression. Quoting: 'In the study, published in the current issue of Journal of Affective Disorders, researchers comment that people with a moderate to high level of belief in a higher power do significantly better in short-term psychiatric treatment than those without. "Belief was associated with not only improved psychological well-being, but decreases in depression and intention to self-harm," says David H. Rosmarin, Ph.D., an instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.' This raises interesting questions. Does this support the concept of depressive realism? If the association is found to be causal, would it be ethical for a psychiatrist to prescribe religion?"

Comments

Thus proving...

[Joe U]

That ignorance is bliss.

It's comforting to have an easy out.

[jtownatpunk.net]

It's God's will. God is testing me. It's beyond my control. There's also the "God gives me strength" angle.

I suppose it's easier to overcome mental health problems if one believes that they bear no responsibility for their troubles and that an infinitely powerful being will make everything okay if they just believe. A metaphysical placebo.

It's a bit rougher if you've only got yourself to blame for your shortcomings and believe the strength to overcome must come from within.

Does it also correlate with

[Karl Cocknozzle]

Does it also correlate with more than usual incidences of requiring help for such maladies?

The power of friends?

[Xeoz]

Having an invisible friend that you know not only believes in you but genuinely loves you is a powerful thing. I'd be very interested to know if people with human friends who love and believe in them enjoy the similar success.

Enjoy each day

[Dorianny]

People are so worried about how long they have to live and what will happen to them after death that they forget to enjoy the life they have. A close relative was diagnosed with low grade lymphoma a few months ago (manageable but unfortunately uncurable ) and she wander why I took such a devastating diagnosis to open her eye to the happiness of everyday life. "I don’t take life for granted anymore. I learned to live in the moment. I also realized that when I live in the present moment, life is wonderful" she said to me. It sounded like a frigging cliche but she seems happier than she has ever been. Perhaps we are just wired to constantly worry and its only when faced with the prospect of death that we realize how futile an effort it is.

Re:Not religion, but purpose

[Pseudonym]

Supermarkets are the simplest and laziest method for obtaining food. I don't see you hunting, gathering or farming all your calories.

Religions generally use fear to control.

Nonsense. Religions generally are cultural practices, just like how you tend to dress like people in your subculture, you tend to participate in the same festivals as people in your country, and you tend to eat the same food as your ethnic group.

The vast majority of religions are based on cultural identity, not fear. Of course, there are some notable exceptions.

Re:This is here, because?

[AK Marc]

Nobody cares if you believe in God, they only care if you don't believe in God. People only "care" if you flaunt it. Every atheist is seen as being as bad as an evangelical activist, because simply not believing is considered a bad thing

I happen to believe that there is a God and I will probably be modded into oblivion just for saying so. The fact that the article shows belief in God in a favorable light, will also not sit well with many.

"I believe in God, and I think Slashdot is a group of bigots that will mod me down for my personal beliefs" is flame bait, and should be treated as such. If you left off the taunt on the end, you might have not deserved the negative mods you are expecting, but haven't gotten at the time I post this.

Re:This is here, because?

[evilviper]

Every atheist is seen as being as bad as an evangelical activist, because simply not believing is considered a bad thing

No, atheists are seen as being as bad as evangelical activists, because a great many of them feel the need to go out of their way to interject their own ideology into the discussion as often as they can... Just like evangelicals. At leasts that's been the bulk of my personal experience, with both types of people.

I've had plenty of perfectly civil conversations about religion and related practices with Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddists, and others. But when it comes to atheists, every one of them seems to define their atheism as their own superiority to all others. All such discussions I've ever had have very quickly devolved into one-sided antagonism, where it's insisted that everyone else must try and "prove" their God exists, and be judged. As I said, that's just my experience, but it's been invariable thus far.

I've certainly never seen this persecution of Atheists you claim exists. And I certainly don't see it being more lonely or challenging to be Atheist than, say, being a lone Hindu or Buddhist in the west.