Spiritual awakening and depression in adolescents: a unified pathway or "two sides of the same coin"

Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic
Lisa Miller

Abstract

Spiritual awakening is inherent to development in the second decade, as reflected not only in millennia of religious faith traditions and indigenous culture but also in recent genetic-twin and epidemiological studies. Developmentally concomitant with spiritual awakening is the window of onset for the most prevalent forms of adolescent suffering in post-industrial societies: depression and related substance abuse and risk taking. Over the past fifteen years, spirituality-a lived relationship with a Higher Power-has been found to be the most robust protective factor against depression known to medical and social sciences. The magnitude of the protective effect and its timing in adolescence raises the question of a singular process or shared biological substrate underlying spiritual awakening and onset of depression. Evidence for such a shared physiology comes from a recent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study suggesting that depression and spirituality in youth reveal "two sides of the same coin."

References

Mar 1, 1997·The American Journal of Psychiatry·K S KendlerC A Prescott
Oct 23, 1997·Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry·L MillerM Weissman
Apr 25, 2000·Journal of Clinical Psychology·K I PargamentL M Perez
Sep 15, 2000·Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry·L MillerS Greenwald
Feb 12, 2002·Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry·Lisa Miller, Merav Gur
Jun 3, 2006·The American Journal of Psychiatry·Myrna M WeissmanHelen Verdeli
Mar 12, 2008·Developmental Psychology·Laura B KoenigWilliam G Iacono
Aug 26, 2011·The American Journal of Psychiatry·Lisa MillerMyrna M Weissman

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Citations

Apr 17, 2015·Journal of Religion and Health·Lisa Miller, Yakov A Barton
Dec 8, 2017·The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine : Research on Paradigm, Practice, and Policy·Paul J MillsDeepak Chopra
Nov 7, 2017·Journal of Health Psychology·Kelsey MooreLinda Moxley-Haegert
Apr 12, 2015·Journal of Religion and Health·Eleanor CobbLisa Miller

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