Religiosity, Spirituality, Meaning-Making, and Suicidality in Psychiatric Patients and Suicide Attempters: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Learning Objective: After participating in this CME activity, the psychiatrist should be better able to: • Explain current understanding of how religiosity, spirituality, and meaning-making (R/S/M) affect patients with psychiatric diagnoses. Introduction: R/S/M generally protect against suicidality and suicide. Thus far, reviews on the topic have largely been descriptive, and there are no meta-analyses focused on psychiatric patients. This study systematically evaluates all empirical evidence on R/S/M’s potential influences on suicidality for psychiatric patients and recent suicide attempters. Methods: A systematic PROSPERO preregistered search following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol was performed in MEDLINE and PsycInfo. Quantitative studies until 31 December 2022 on R/S/M and suicidality in psychiatric populations and recent suicide attempters were selected; psychological autopsy studies were excluded. Results: The search identified 4,374 studies for screening. This resulted in 108 eligible studies for the systematic review and 75 studies for the meta-analysis, including 231 effect sizes (ES) and 17,561 subjects. Research focused mainly on the emotional, moral, and ritual aspects of R/S/M. Most research was cross-sectional; repeated R/S/M assessments were rarely reported. A combined significant and negative ES (Fisher Z = -0.13, p =.006, equivalent to Cohen's d = -0.26) was found for all good- and fair-quality studies. Conclusion: Overall, R/S/M was associated with lowering suicidality. Maladaptive-distressing dimensions of R/S/M correlated with higher rates of suicidality (e.g., religious struggles). The explanatory value was limited by the predominantly cross-sectional nature of ESs.