Jehovah’s Witnesses and psychiatric diagnoses?

___

Coval MacDonald and Jeffrey Luckett authored a comprehensive study in 1983 to evaluate whether there is a relationship between religious groups and psychiatric diagnoses.[1]

This study included 7050 patients with an array of psychiatric diagnoses treated at a US based mental healthcare facility. Each of these patients was identified with one of seven broad categories. (i.e., No Religious Preference, Non-Mainline Protestant, Mainline Protestant, Catholic, Other Protestant, Unknown, Sects) The study was not constructed to determine prevalence of mental disease between religious affiliation but rather to what sort of mental health issues tend to be more or less associated with a religious affiliation (if there is such an correlation).

Jehovah’s Witnesses were included in the broad religious set termed “Sects” along with Christian Science, Church of the Latter Day Saints, and Seventh Day Adventist.

It was discovered that religious affiliation (or not) is no harbor for emotional dysfunction, yet there is a relationship between religious affiliation and psychiatric diagnoses.

Of the 7050 patients there were 673 diagnosed with psychoses. Across all religious categories the incident of psychoses averages 10%. As it turned out, only one of the broad religious categories had more than 10% incident of psychoses and that one category was “Sects”. Among the “Sect” category the incident of psychoses was 21%. Or, as the study reads “Psychoses were dominated by Sects” (which category includes Jehovah’s Witnesses).

Readers should take care not to misunderstand or misuse this information. It does not suggest there is more psychoses among Jehovah’s Witnesses (and other religious affiliation categorized under “Sect” in this study) compared with other religious affiliations. Rather it means the incident of psychoses predominates as a diagnoses in this patient population (JWs et al) when psychiatric diagnoses is made of patients in this category.[2]

Not to be missed is that other religious affiliations have their own issues when it comes to psychiatric disorders. For instance the hallmark of category “No Religious Preference” was found to be sustained use of alcohol.

Marvin Shilmer

_________________

References:

1. MacDonald and Luckett, Religious Affiliation and Psychiatric Diagnoses, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1983, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 15-37

2. For more on the subject see the article Jehovah’s Witnesses — mental health? containing documentation from a licensed psychologist among Jehovah’s Witnesses.

___