After defining each of the terms, Dr. Koenig will review the burgeoning scientific research examining the relationship between religion, spirituality, and health. Beginning with mental health, he will provide an overview of the empirical research, before focusing on current work on depression. He will describe the results of a recent randomized clinical trial comparing religious psychotherapy for depression with standard secular psychotherapy, and talk about a new proposed spiritually oriented psychotherapy for the treatment of moral injury in veterans and active duty military diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Moving next to physical health, Dr. Koenig will offer a broad overview of the evidence base before taking up a focus on recent work in cardiovascular disease and overall mortality. He will describe a model that helps to explain how religious involvement influences health in monotheistic religious traditions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam), and review recent research examining the biological mechanisms that may connect religious involvement to health. Finally, he will share ideas and resources for those who would like to follow this exciting and rapidly expanding area of research.
Harold G. Koenig, MD, MHSc, is founder and former director of Duke University's Center for the Study of Religion, Spirituality, and Health, and is now Director of Duke's current Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health. He is Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke, and has published extensively in the fields of mental health, geriatrics, and religion, with over 350 scientific peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and nearly 40 books in print or in preparation. He is the former editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, and is on the editorial boards of many professional journals. His research on religion, health, and ethical issues in medicine has been featured on over 50 national and international TV news programs (including Good Morning America, The Today Show, and ABC's World News Tonight), over 100 national or international radio programs (including many NPR and BBC interviews), hundreds of national and international newspapers or magazines (including cover stories for Reader's Digest, Parade Magazine, and Newsweek), and is considered by biomedical scientists one of the world's top experts on religion and health.
