Hill et al. (2016) report a positive association between religiosity (a summary measure of service attendance, frequency of prayer, and religious identity) and telomere length. Their results, if repli- cated in other studies with more rigorous designs, might account for one mechanism through which religious participation affects longevity. As the authors note, research on religiosity and...

Author of: The Finest Traditions of My Calling

The evolution of medicine away from individual patient-centered care and towards a more efficient, population-based approach has had large repercussions on the quality and depth of care delivered to the ill. As healthcare reforms in the United States continue to be made, the patient-physician relationship is being strained as the practice of medical care moves physicians away from seeing patients for more than their physical ailments. Dr. Abraham Nussbaum, director of adult inpatient psychiatry at Denver Health,...

Numerous media reports have been made on the findings from a recently published study in JAMA Internal Medicine by Drs. Shanshan Li, Meir Stampfer, David Williams, and Tyler VanderWeele entitled "Association of Religious Service Attendance with Mortality Among Women."

The study, conducted through The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, found that women who attended religious services more than once per week were 33% less likely to die during a 16-year-follow-up than...

While past research indicates that mental health professionals are less religious than the public they serve, little is known about the implications of therapists' world views for their practice. In this study, approximately 50 therapists completed surveys that assessed self-identification in relation to spirituality, religion, and/or world view; how relevant they considered their patients' and their own world views; and responses to clinical vignettes involving issues arising in...