Spirituality/Medicine Interface Project

The Spiritual History

Authors: Harold G. Koenig, MD

Abstract

Physicians are already overburdened with the amount of information they need to collect from patients. No doubt it is challenging to be told that one must screen patients for depression, social isolation, substance abuse, and unhealthy lifestyles, in addition to detecting covert physical disease and comprehensively addressing medical problems. Now it seems yet another area needs physician attention: the spiritual realm. Most physicians do not feel comfortable addressing such issues that appear to lie squarely outside of their area of expertise.

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