The relationships between religion/spirituality and Mental and Physical Health: A review

Religion and spirituality are usually considered as protective factors against a host of negative health outcomes. Recent surveys havedocumented several associations between religion/spirituality and physical and mental health outcomes. Most of the evidences on the effectsof religion on general health suggest that religion commonly plays a positive role. On the other side, religion and spirituality can also bepathological with harmful effects such as superficially literal, authoritarian or blindly obedient, etc. Various factors with different mechanismsinfluence this relationship and identification of these moderating and mediating variables is important for further decisions. Therefore, in thisreview, the relationships between religion/spirituality and mental and physical health are represented.

Keywords:

Religion , spirituality , health , review