BRIEF REPORTS I 884 Am] Psychiatry 150:12, December 1993 Religious Content in the DSM-ffl-R Glossary of Technical Terms

references to religion. Religion was referred to more frequently in this glossary than it is in psychiatric research. The authors conclude that although the Glossary uses religion in con-structive or cautionary reminders, the high rate ofillustrative case examples of psychopathol-ogy that involve religion in the Glossary indicates cultural insensitivity in interpreting religion. (Am J Psychiatry 1993; 150:1884-1885) P opulation surveys during the last SO years consis-tently show that religious beliefs and practices are common in U.S. society (1). Beginning with Freud (2), however, psychiatry’s view of religious commitment has been, at best, indifferent. Mental health workers maintain beliefs that are generally much less theistic than those of the rest of the U.S. population (3). In a systematic review of the leading psychiatric jour-nals (3), we found that religion variables were often ex-cluded from psychiatric research: less than 1 % of th