ArticleSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2014
Psychological characteristics of religious delusions.
Article in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between Delusions, Belief Flexibility, and Cognitive Control in Schizophrenia - A 6-Month Repeated-Measures Study.Schizophrenia bulletin open · 2026Article
- Pivotal mental states.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2021Review
- Brief Psychotic Disorder During the National Lockdown in Italy: An Emerging Clinical Phenomenon of the COVID-19 Pandemic.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2021Article
- Article
- Religious psychopathology: The prevalence of religious content of delusions and hallucinations in mental disorder.The International journal of social psychiatry · 2015Review
- Therapeutic advances for people with delusions will come from greater specification and empirical investigation.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 7 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposeReligious delusions are common and are considered to be particularly difficult to treat. In this study we investigated what psychological processes may underlie the reported treatment resistance. In particular, we focused on the perceptual, cognitive, affective and behavioural mechanisms held to maintain delusions in cognitive models of psychosis, as these form the key treatment targets in cognitive behavioural therapy. We compared religious delusions to delusions with other content.
methodsComprehensive measures of symptoms and psychological processes were completed by 383 adult participants with delusions and a schizophrenia spectrum diagnosis, drawn from two large studies of cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis.
resultsBinary logistic regression showed that religious delusions were associated with higher levels of grandiosity (OR 7.5; 95 % CI 3.9-14.1), passivity experiences, having internal evidence for their delusion (anomalous experiences or mood states), and being willing to consider alternatives to their delusion (95 % CI for ORs 1.1-8.6). Levels of negative symptoms were lower. No differences were found in delusional conviction, insight or attitudes towards treatment.
conclusionsLevels of positive symptoms, particularly anomalous experiences and grandiosity, were high, and may contribute to symptom persistence. However, contrary to previous reports, we found no evidence that people with religious delusions would be less likely to engage in any form of help. Higher levels of flexibility may make them particularly amenable to cognitive behavioural approaches, but particular care should be taken to preserve self-esteem and valued aspects of beliefs and experiences.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.