Serotonin and spirituality
Researchers curious about the link between depression, anxiety, and the brain's serotonin system have posited a relationship between low serotonin and spirituality, reports Science and Theology News.A strong linear correlation exists, the Swedish scientists report, between high scores for openness to spiritual experience and a low density of serotonin receptors.
Still, it's too early to conclude that there's a direction relationship between spirituality and serotonin, Keith Meador, Ph.D., tells the newspaper. [He's director of Duke University's Theology and Medicine program.] Rather, the data must be examined to interpret the relationship between the brain and spiritual experience.
While it's too early to draw many conclusions from this study, it does suggest some questions that pastoral theologians and caregivers might want to engage.
For example, are different spiritual practices indicated for people with different biological levels of openness to religious/spiritual experience? How are experiences of depression, anxiety, and spiritual experience similar? Different? What criteria might we use for distinguishing between them? What is the spiritual impact of using serotonin reuptake inhibitors to treat anxiety, depression, and other mental and biological illnesses?
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Thursday, March 25, 2004
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