Effect of religion on the course of anxiety disorders and symptoms over 9-years follow-up

Background: Religion can be an important aspect in life for people and may therefore be important to consider in anxiety disorders. However, there has been limited research into the longitudinal relationship between religiousness and the prevalence of anxiety disorders or anxiety severity and no such research up to date looking at specific anxiety disorders.

Methods: We made use of data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA), a large clinical cohort study, including 2981 participants at baseline. Based on religious affiliation, commitment to affiliation and religious attendance at baseline as demographic variables, three groups (non-affiliated; affiliated, low commitment/attendance; affiliated, higher commitment/attendance) were compared regarding the prevalence of specific anxiety disorders and anxiety severity at baseline and at two, four, six, and nine years follow-up. For the analyses, we used graphs and Linear Mixed Models.

Results: Overall, no differences were found for the prevalence of specific anxiety disorders and of comorbidity between anxiety disorders or comorbidity with depressive disorders. Furthermore, results showed no differences between the groups regarding the anxiety severity over time.

Limitations: The main limitations relate to the operationalization of religiousness based on demographic variables at baseline.

Conclusions: On a population level, being religiously affiliated with more or less commitment/attendance does not seem to protect against specific anxiety disorders or more anxiety symptoms, nor is it a risk factor. Further research should focus on more internal religious aspects, and more specifically on anxiety in specific groups of religious people or people with specific religion related anxiety.