Spirituality and mental health: current research and future directions

Abstract

Many researchers have demonstrated that spirituality plays a significant role in the lives of people, their thoughts, and behaviors. In this article, the effect of spirituality on mental health has been reviewed. In order to make further advances in the field it is becoming increasingly important to (a) acknowledge the differences between the different religions; (b) develop context-specific definitions of spirituality, namely define spirituality in the context of a particular faith; and (c) construct the studies that will evaluate spirituality according to the context-specific measures. This approach will enable us to carry out comprehensive studies of analytical and comparative nature, and generate groundbreaking results in this research field.