Spirituality and Medicine

David Rosmarin: Why Religious Belief Provides a Real Buffer Against Suicide Risk

Under-recognised as a protective force against suicide, religious faith has multiple features that help to save lives

When John came to McLean Hospital for treatment, most of our team was convinced he would kill himself. As a middle-aged white man with severe and chronic depression, significant physical pain, easy access to firearms, a long history of substance misuse, and childhood sexual abuse, he checked almost every box on the list of risk factors for suicide...

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Xavier Symons: The hostility of Illness and the Therapeutic Importance of Hospitality

The experience of illness can be isolating and alienating. Serious and chronic illness can make one feel unwelcome in one’s own body and out of place in a world of otherwise healthy people. The theme of illness as alienation is explored in Susan Sontag’s 1978 essay “Illness as Metaphor.” Sontag, who at the time was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, compares illness to a second citizenship—one that we must all take up at some point in our lives:

Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in...

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Tara Parker-Pope: A New Study shows Forgiveness is Good for Health.

Early in his career as a marriage counselor, psychologist Everett Worthington noticed that many couples were angry about perceived slights and real wrongs — and he realized they could make progress only if they forgave each other.

Those insights prompted Worthington to embark on a decades-long academic career studying the science of forgiveness.

While the act of forgiving is often discussed by faith...

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Tracy Balboni: How Spirituality Can Affect Caregiving

According to a recent study by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital, asking about a patient's spirituality can and should be a part of caregiving. In addition, spirituality could play a vital role in health care for those undergoing severe health issues and benefit an individual's overall well-being.

"Spirituality, the source of a person's core meaning, purpose and values, is important to health because it often forms the foundation for understanding and coping...

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Tyler Van DerWeele: Why Spirituality Matters in Medicine

Spirituality and medicine have a long, intertwined, history. The very emergence of hospitals in the West arose in part out of the hospitality and care provided by monasteries. Many hospitals have since been founded by religious institutions, and much of medical care throughout the world is still provided by religious hospitals and medical mission efforts. Religious and spiritual life and community provide an important health resource for many people throughout the world. And many people’s medical decisions are shaped by their spiritual and religious beliefs....

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Alexandra Nichipor: Religion and the BRCA Mutation

IT WAS A COLD DAY in January, not long before my 22nd birthday, and I was looking out at the Boston cityscape after receiving my genetic test results. I called my boyfriend and tried to be lighthearted about it. “Hey, I just found out I’m the most boring member of the X-men.”

My genetic counselor had explained my BRCA2 mutation to me carefully. “Sometimes cells divide incorrectly, and when this process goes unchecked, a person can develop cancer. We each have a number of genes that put a stop to this process. One of them is called BRCA2.” She held up two hands “Every...

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Tyler VanderWeele: Is Forgiveness a Public Health Issue?

If forgiveness is strongly related to health, and being wronged is a common experience, and interventions, even do-it-yourself workbook interventions, are available and effective, then one might make the case that forgiveness is a public health issue. From a societal perspective, the public health impact of an exposure or intervention is often assessed as a function of (1) how common the exposure or experience is, and (2) how large its effects are. Because being wronged is common, and be- cause the effects of forgiveness on health are substantial, forgiveness should perhaps be...

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Tyler VanderWeele: Do Religious People Live Longer?

If a long life is what you’re after, going to church may be the answer to your prayers.

A number of studies have shown associations between attending religious services and living a long time. One of the most comprehensive, published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2016, found that women who went to any kind of religious service morethan once a week had a 33% lower chance than their secular peers of dying during the 16-year study-follow-up period. Another study, published last year in PLOS One, found that regular service attendance was linked to reductions in the body’s...

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Gloria White-Hammond: Church Spurs Parishioners To Plan For Illness And Death

By Melissa Bailey

“It would feel like murder to pull her life support,” a young woman tells the doctor.

The woman sits by a hospital bed where her mother, Selena, lies unresponsive, hooked up to a
breathing tube. The daughter has already made one attempt to save her mother’s life; she
pulled Selena out of the car and performed CPR when her heart stopped en route to the
hospital — an experience she calls “beyond terrifying.”

Now the doctor tells the family Selena will never wake up in a meaningful way. But the daughter
says she...

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IHRS in the News: Quest for a Peaceful Death

By Jeff Wheelwright

When a cancer patient has run out of options — when her disease has returned and the latest experimental
drug has failed and her oncologist hasn’t much to say — that’s when the patient would be fortunate to meet
Tracy Balboni. She’s a radiation oncologist and palliative care researcher at Harvard Medical School and
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. She works at the murky stage of care known as end-of-life, where
decisions about additional treatment can be complicated by fear and pain.


Simply put, Balboni’s...

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