Status of medical articles on religion and spirituality from past to present

Hüseyin Çaksen, Department of Pediatrics, Divisions of Pediatric Neurology and Genetics and Behavioral-Developmental Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Necmettin Erbakan University, Meram, Konya, Türkiye

In this article, we have evaluated the status of medical articles related to religion and spirituality published in the last 50 years in the literature to determine the distribution of studies on religion and spirituality by the major religions in the world and decades. There was a continuous increase in the number of articles related to “religion, religious, spiritual, or spirituality,” and the major religions including Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism except for Sikhism from 1971-1980 to 2011-2020. A continued increase was also noted in the number of articles on the Quran and the Bible, but not on “Hebrew Bible.” Furthermore, the articles related to Islam and Buddhism showed the highest increase among the major religions. In conclusion, religion and spirituality have been linked to medicine for centuries. Religion and medicine are inseparable because religion is the very life of life, its light, and its basis. We believe that medical articles on religion and spirituality will increase significantly over the next decade as faith is on the rise around the world.

Keywords: Medicine. Article. Religion. Spirituality.