Spirituality in psychiatry: a biopsychosocial perspective

This paper reviews a body of findings in order to define the nature of spirituality from a biopsychosocial perspective and to illustrate its relevance to the field of psychiatry. The emergence of spirituality within the common culture is described, after which a number of sociobiologically related studies are presented to illustrate how its component dimensions can be defined. These are evolutionary adaptation, affectional ties, subjective experiences, and positive psychology. The relevance of spiritually related issues in psychiatric diagnosis are illustrated, along with examples of their role in symptom relief. The paper concludes with a description of a program implemented to integrate the issue of spirituality into resident training and into group support for hospital-based patients.