Addiction and spirituality

Background Spirituality is it topic of increasing interest to clinicians and researchers interested in addiction. Aims To clarify the way(s) in which the concept, of spirituality is understood and employed in practice by clinicians and researchers who publish papers on addiction and spirituality and to develop it definition or description of spirituality which might receive widespread assent within the field. Design A descriptive study of 265 published books and papers on spirituality and addiction. Findings The study revealed it diversity and lack of clarity of understanding of the concept of spirituality However. it was possible to identify 13 conceptual components of spirituality which recurred within the literature. Among these conceptual components of spirituality, 'relatedness' and 'transcendence' were encountered most frequently 'Meaning/purpose', 'wholeness (non-)religiousness' and 'consciousness' were encountered less frequently in the papers on addiction and spirituality than in an unsystematically ascertained sample of papers concerned with spirituality in relation to other areas of psychology and medicine. However. biases in the literature are notable. For example, the great majority of publications are from North America and the field is dominated by interest in Twelve-Step and Christian spirituality. Conclusion Spirituality as understood within the addiction field, is currently poorly defined. Thirteen conceptual components of spirituality which are employed in this field are identified provisionally and a working definition is proposed as a basis for future research.