Religiosity and Major Depression in Adults at High Risk: A Ten-Year Prospective Study

Abstract

Objective Previously the authors found that personal importance of religion or spirituality was associated with a lower risk for major depression in a study of adults with and without a history of depression. Here the authors examine the association of personal importance of religion or spirituality with major depression in the adult offspring of the original sample using a 10-year prospective longitudinal design. Method Participants were 114 adult offspring of depressed and nondepressed parents, followed longitudinally. The analysis covers the period from the 10-year to the 20-year follow-up assessments. Diagnosis was assessed with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia–Lifetime Version. Religiosity measures included personal importance of religion or spirituality, frequency of attendance at religious services, and denomination (all participants were Catholic or Protestant). In a logistic regression analysis, major depression at 20 years was used as the outcome measure and the three religiosity variables at 10 years as predictors. Results Offspring who reported at year 10 that religion or spirituality was highly important to them had about one-fourth the risk of experiencing major depression between years 10 and 20 compared with other participants. Religious attendance and denomination did not significantly predict this outcome. The effect was most pronounced among offspring at high risk for depression by virtue of having a depressed parent; in this group, those who reported a high importance of religion or spirituality had about one-tenth the risk of experiencing major depression between years 10 and 20 compared with those who did not. The protective effect was found primarily against recurrence rather than onset of depression. Conclusions A high self-report rating of the importance of religion or spirituality may have a protective effect against recurrence of depression, particularly in adults with a history of parental depression.

Religion, Spirituality, and Mental Health

“…Respondents who attended church monthly, weekly, and more than weekly tended to exhibit slower rates of cognitive decline than those who did not attend church. In a ten year prospective study of offspring of depressed and non -depressed patients, Miller et al (2012) found that a high self-report rating of religion or spirituality may have a protective effect against recurrence of depression, particularly in adults with a history of parental depression.…”

Reliance on God’s Help in Patients with Depressive and Addictive Disorders is not Associated with Their Depressive Symptoms

“…Their major finding was that self-reported importance of spirituality/religiosity had a -protective effect against recurrence of depression, particularly in adults with a history of parental depression‖, while neither religious attendance nor denomination had a significant predictive effect [36]. This means, the importance a person may ascribe to its spiritual attitude could be of relevance.…”

“…An important statement came from Miller and co-workers [36] who followed longitudinally adult offsprings of depressed and non-depressed parents. Their major finding was that self-reported importance of spirituality/religiosity had a -protective effect against recurrence of depression, particularly in adults with a history of parental depression‖, while neither religious attendance nor denomination had a significant predictive effect [36].…”

The Role of Religious Involvement in Black–White Differences in Alcohol Use Disorders

“…However, results from several prospective studies suggest that religious involvement is a predictor of later substance use disorders (Good & Willoughby, 2011;Idler & Kasl, 1997;Lambert et al, 2010;Miller et al, 2012). For example, one prospective study showed that among persons with no AUD at baseline, a higher frequency of organized religious attendance was associated with a lower risk of 6-month AUD incidence (Borders et al, 2010).…”