Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26200715›Full record

SynthesisPsychological medicine2015

Religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials.

J P B Gonçalves, G Lucchetti, P R Menezes, H Vallada

Open access · hybridAbstract readMeta-AnalysisSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Psychological medicine, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 89 papers, 11 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
89citing papers in PubMed, 11 pooled it
16.5field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

89 citing papers in PubMed, 11 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 376 citations in OpenAlex.

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  10. Quality of life of cancer patients at palliative care units in developing countries: systematic review of the published literature.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2021
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  19. Language-dependent expression of anxiety and depression symptoms in Japanese-English bilinguals.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2026
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29 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

J P B GonçalvesDepartment of Psychiatry,University of Sao Paulo Medical School,Sao Paulo,SP,Brazil.
G LucchettiFederal University of Juiz de Fora,Juiz de Fora,Minas Gerais,Brazil.
P R MenezesDepartment of Preventive Medicine,University of Sao Paulo Medical School,Sao Paulo,SP,Brazil.
H ValladaDepartment of Psychiatry,University of Sao Paulo Medical School,Sao Paulo,SP,Brazil.
Universidade de São Paulo · BR

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDespite the extensive literature assessing associations between religiosity/spirituality and health, few studies have investigated the clinical applicability of this evidence. The purpose of this paper was to assess the impact of religious/spiritual interventions (RSI) through randomized clinical trials (RCTs).

methodA systematic review was performed in the following databases: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Cochrane Collaboration, Embase and SciELO. Through the use of a Boolean expression, articles were included if they: (i) investigated mental health outcomes; (ii) had a design consistent with RCTs. We excluded protocols involving intercessory prayer or distance healing. The study was conducted in two phases by reading: (1) title and abstracts; (2) full papers and assessing their methodological quality. Then, a meta-analysis was carried out.

resultsThrough this method, 4751 papers were obtained, of which 23 remained included. The meta-analysis showed significant effects of RSI on anxiety general symptoms (p < 0.001) and in subgroups: meditation (p < 0.001); psychotherapy (p = 0.02); 1 month of follow-up (p < 0.001); and comparison groups with interventions (p < 0.001). Two significant differences were found in depressive symptoms: between 1 and 6 months and comparison groups with interventions (p = 0.05). In general, studies have shown that RSI decreased stress, alcoholism and depression.

conclusionsRCTs on RSI showed additional benefits including reduction of clinical symptoms (mainly anxiety). The diversity of protocols and outcomes associated with a lack of standardization of interventions point to the need for further studies evaluating the use of religiosity/spirituality as a complementary treatment in health care.

Indexed as

MeditationPastoral CareAnxietyDepressionHumansMental HealthPsychotherapyQuality of LifeRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicClinical careclinical trialsmeta-analysesreligiosityspirituality

Identifiers

PMID26200715
PMCPMC4595860
OpenAlexW2162182607

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.