Development of a bibliography on religion, spirituality and addictions CYNTHIA GEPPERT 1 , MICHAEL P. BOGENSCHUTZ 2 , & WILLIAM R. MILLER 2 1 New Mexico Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Religious Studies Program, University of New Mexico, USA, and 2 Department of Psychiatry University of New Mexico School of Medicine, New Mexico, USA Abstract Introduction and Aims. The aim of this study was to develop a comprehensive annotated public-domain bibliography of the literature on spirituality and addictions to facilitate future research and scholarship. Design and Methods. A search was conducted of all citations listed in the MEDLINE, PsychINFO and ALTA Religion databases covering a period from 1941 to 2004 using the following search terms: substance abuse, substance dependence, addiction, religion, spirituality. A group of experts in the field then classified each citation according to empirically derived categories. Results. A total of 1353 papers met the search parameters and were classified into 10 non-exclusive categories: (1) attitudes toward spirituality and substance use, (2) commentaries, (3) spiritual practices and development in recovery, (4) spiritual and religion variables in the epidemiology of substance abuse, (5) psychoactive substances and spiritual experiences, (6) religious and spiritual interventions, (7) literature reviews, (8) measurement of spirituality and addictions, (9) 12-Step spirituality and (10) youth and development. Discussion and Conclusions. The literature is voluminous, but has focused primarily in a few areas. Common findings included an inverse relationship between religiosity and substance use/abuse, reduced use among those practising meditation and protective effects of 12-Step group involvement during recovery. Although sound instruments are available for measuring spirituality, studies have tended to use simplistic, often single-item measures. [Geppert C, Bogenschutz MP, Miller WR. Development of a bibliography on religion, spirituality and addictions. Drug Alcohol Rev 2007;26:389 – 395] Key words: addiction, bibliography, religion, spirituality, substance use. Introduction There is increasing professional and popular interest in the relationship of spirituality and religion to health in general, and in linkage of addiction, religion and spirituality in particular [1]. Religion and spirituality appear in this body of literature as multi-dimensional constructs that overlap but are conceptually distinct. The definitions of religion and spirituality employed in this research are those based on the Handbook of religion and health. Religion is conceived as an organised system of beliefs and practices intended to mediate an individual’s relationship to the transcendent and to the community. Spirituality is a more personal and less formal search for meaning and relationship to the sacred [2]. There has been a corresponding rapid growth in both clinical and research-oriented publica- tions on these topics, but little is known about the scope and quality of this burgeoning body of literature. The most comprehensive previous attempt to categorise the literature was Cook’s study, published in 2004 [3]. Although this work is a significant contribution to the field, it focuses primarily on the ways the concept of spirituality is employed in the addiction literature, and describes only 256 papers. Indeed, there have been substantive criticisms of both the content and method of the entire scholarly enterprise examining the relationship of spiritual and religious variables with health outcomes [4]. As pointed out in an earlier review, analysis of these variables in the addiction field is especially important because spiritual or religious concepts and practices have traditionally played a larger role in addiction treatment than in other areas of mental health or medicine [5]. Despite recent dis- coveries in pharmacology and psychotherapy, spiritual Received 5 April 2006; accepted for publication 5 December 2006. Cynthia Geppert MD, PhD, Chief Consultation Psychiatry and Ethics, New Mexico Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Associate Director, Religious Studies Program University of New Mexico, USA, Michael P. Bogenschutz MD, Professor and Vice-Chair for Addictions, Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, New Mexico, USA, William R. Miller PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, Departments of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico, USA. Correspondence to Cynthia Geppert MD, PhD, New Mexico Veterans Affairs Health Care System, 1501 San Pedro, NE Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108 5153, USA. Tel: (505) 265 1711, ext. 5551. Fax: (505) 256 – 5474. E-mail: ethicdoc@comcast.net Drug and Alcohol Review (July 2007), 26, 389 – 395 ISSN 0959-5236 print/ISSN 1465-3362 online/07/040389–07 ª Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs DOI: 10.1080/09595230701373826