Integrating Spiritual And Religious Themes In Psychiatric Management

Psychiatric treatment still remains a challenge. The hurdles in its treatment not only lie on pharmacological shortfalls (selection of appropriate drugs, their dosing and combating the adverse effects), but also the deep-rooted social 'taboo' related to it. The present article is an effort to search how spiritualism and religious themes could be adopted as an adjuvant to today's psychiatric management. The reason for such integration is that spiritualism and religious feelings are intimately linked with one's mind. The article tries to extract the influence of 'religion' and 'spiritual' practices in mental health through a review of the relevant studies available in electronic journal databases. Finally, the article proposes a 'biopsychosocial model' that can be implemented as a supportive measure with the present state of psychiatric practice. The article also directs future research related to the neurobiological basis of spirituality.