Description
"This handbook reviews and discusses the extensive research on the relationships between religion and a variety of mental and physical health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, cancer, and immune system dysfunction, along with health destructive behaviors such as smoking, substance abuse, and risky sexual activity. This research review is both critical and comprehensive, encompassing a huge corpus of published and unpublished research conducted between 1900 and 2000. Both positive and negative effects on health throughout the lifespan from childhood to old age are examined and discussed." "Offering the only comprehensive examination of the research in this burgeoning field, this groundbreaking work lays the foundation for research, clinical practice, and collaboration between religious and health professionals in the twenty-first century."--BOOK JACKET.