Religion & Health (Gender Differences, Pt. 1)

Joanna Maselko of Temple University's Department of Public Health and Stephen Buka of the Harvard School of Public Health have found that a person's pattern of religious service attendance can be related to psychological distress—but in opposite ways for men and women. Women who stopped being religiously active were three times more likely to suffer generalized anxiety disorder and alcohol abuse or dependence than those who remained active; men, on the other hand, were less likely to suffer depression if they became less religiously active. The study appears in the current issue of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. —Heather Wax