Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy with Religious/Spiritual Influence: A Systematic Review
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Abstract
There is an increase in studies on Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy integrated with religiosity/spirituality. The objectives of this research are to present a systematic review of the literature on the impact of Religious/ Spiritual Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on mental health; whether it presents good results and whether these are superior to conventional Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy; and to verify the scientific quality of these studies. Multiple databases were consulted. Thirty studies were included in this research, which randomized or non-randomized clinical trials, semi-experimental clinical trials and single-group clinical trials. These studies addressed depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, stress, quality of life, and increased positive Religious/Spiritual Coping and decreased negative Religious/Spiritual Coping. The vast majority of the included studies demonstrated improvement in the participants’ symptoms, although methodological flaws were found in a considerable number of these studies, highlighted by the use of the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation system. There are studies that demonstrated equivalent results between conventional Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Religious/ Spiritual Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, so that the former cannot be stated as superior to the latter, although Religious/Spiritual Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy may be attractive to populations that demonstrate greater resistance to seeking psychotherapy, and approaching the patient through their Religiosity/ Spirituality may lead to content that would not be presented in psychotherapy, once the patient wishes for this demand to be worked on, it is pertinent that the professional is available to develop the work.
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