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The spiritual side of healing - a supernatural miracle or spontaneous remission
Abstract
The paper focuses on examples of the spiritual side of healing for which there are different scientist approaches in providing explanation for sudden healing and influence of prayer on illness outcomes. Miraculous healings are a challenge for scientists in search of evidence which can provide the answer to the question whether intercessory prayer influences the favorable treatment outcomes, and whether individual cases can be explained through the use of the medical term spontaneous remission.
The initial assumption of some scientists is that the positive impact of intercessory prayer on patient cure is possible while some scientists through their critical analysis find no justification for the given results. based on available results of the research so far it is not possible to reach a conclusion that would confirm or reject the potential impact of intercessory prayer on treatment outcome, even though there is a significantly higher number of studies that do not confirm such correlation, especially among those that have been conducted according to controlled clinical trials methodology. However, there is ample evidence of positive outcomes among respondents who actively prayed for their health ‒ outcomes ranging from reducing the incidence of treatment complications to reducing the incidence of lethal outcomes. The results indicate that prayer and spirituality have their own place in integrated care for patients as physical beings, but also as mental and spiritual beings.
At the same time, individual cases of miraculous healing among the pilgrims or among people who intensively prayed for the restoration of their health, especially at Lourdes and Međugorje, indicate that from a medical standpoint this is a very interesting phenomenon the thorough scientific research of which has its own value.
JAHS. 2016; 2(1): 15-22 prijelom.indd 15 4/11/16 11:17 AM
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Evidence regarding the influence of the mind on the body is abundant. Several mind-body healing procedures are currently being used, among them hypnosis, biofeedback, meditation, visualizations, management of emotions and prayer. Since the Big Bang, we are entangled with everything. This interaction would let individuals to communicate with the minds and bodies of others. The field of parapsychological research has provided a lot of information about significant events, including apparitions, communications with the dead, near-death experiences and out of the body experiences. It looks apparently evident, that consciousness can persist in the absence of brain function. According to the model that assumes that it is consciousness and not matter, the base of everything that exists, what survives after death is the "quantum monad" or spirit. It is said that spiritual cures are practiced by discarnate physicians who diagnose and prescribe conventional treatments, but very often they use unknown procedures based on the management of energy fields that are currently being studied by many physicists. Representative examples of the practice of spiritual medicine were the mediums Ze Arigo, George Chapman, Barbara Guerrero (Pachita) and presently the Brazilian medium John of God. Case reports of paranormal phenomena observed and studied by honest and serious scientists are very important for the advancement of parapsychology, because it has not been clearly established which approach, the qualitative or the quantitative, is more useful for the development of this field.
We discuss in this commentary a recent Cochrane review of 10 randomised trials aimed at testing the religious belief that praying to a god can help those who are prayed for. The review concluded that the available studies merit additional research. However, the review presented a scientifically unsound mixture of theological and scientific arguments, and two of the included trials that had a large impact on the findings had problems that were not described in the review. The review fails to live up to the high standards required for Cochrane reviews.
Background:
Alternative medicine researchers and policy makers have classified prayer as a mind-body intervention, and thus, a modality of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). As such, numerous epidemiological surveys of CAM utilization-which have included prayer-depict increasing CAM use, particularly in specific racial and ethnic groups.
Objectives:
This paper discusses the implications of conflating prayer and CAM, especially regarding the definitions of both concepts and the resulting statistics of CAM utilization.
The introduction of screening mammography has been associated with sustained increases in breast cancer incidence. The natural history of these screen-detected cancers is not well understood.
We compared cumulative breast cancer incidence in age-matched cohorts of women residing in 4 Norwegian counties before and after the initiation of biennial mammography. The screened group included all women who were invited for all 3 rounds of screening during the period 1996 through 2001 (age range in 1996, 50-64 years). The control group included all women who would have been invited for screening had there been a screening program during the period 1992 through 1997 (age range in 1992, 50-64 years). All women in the control group were invited to undergo a 1-time prevalence screen at the end of their observation period. Screening attendance was similar in both groups (screened, 78.3%, and controls, 79.5%). Counts of incident invasive breast cancers were obtained from the Norwegian Cancer Registry (in situ cancers were excluded).
As expected, before the age-matched controls were invited to be screened at the end of their observation period, the cumulative incidence of invasive breast cancer was significantly higher in the screened group than in the controls (4-year cumulative incidence: 1268 vs 810 per 100 000 population; relative rate, 1.57; 95% confidence interval, 1.44-1.70). Even after prevalence screening in controls, however, the cumulative incidence of invasive breast cancer remained 22% higher in the screened group (6-year cumulative incidence: 1909 vs 1564 per 100 000 population; relative rate, 1.22; 95% confidence interval, 1.16-1.30). Higher incidence was observed in screened women at each year of age.
Because the cumulative incidence among controls never reached that of the screened group, it appears that some breast cancers detected by repeated mammographic screening would not persist to be detectable by a single mammogram at the end of 6 years. This raises the possibility that the natural course of some screen-detected invasive breast cancers is to spontaneously regress.
The literature on the spontaneous regression of cancer is reviewed from 1966 to 1987 to update reviews by Everson & Cole and by Boyd. These authors reviewed all cases of spontaneous regression from 1900 to 1965. We then report the entire series from 1900 to 1987. We also attempted to determine what attributions for spontaneous regressions have been reported. Although almost half of the authors failed to speculate or specify a possible cause for the spontaneous regression, the remainder postulated responsible factors such as immunological or endocrine, surgical, necrosis, infection, or operative trauma. The only unorthodox treatment to appear in the literature was the psychological. We conclude that the literature on the spontaneous regression of cancer is still unable to provide unambiguous accounts of the mechanisms operating to affect these regressions.
Can miraculous healings be equalized with "spontaneous remissions" from modern medical terminology? Following the trace of (mostly) medieval miracle accounts, the present paper, though arguing against the use of the term "spontaneous", supports the idea of equalization, finding clear examples of failed or incomplete healings, relapses, and the cases of saints who themselves were passing through the process of illness. In conclusion of this interdisciplinary approach combining historical material with modern knowledge, it is advocated that a significant corpus of miraculous healings have been based on suggestive mechanisms.
This report presents selected estimates of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use among U.S. adults, using data from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
Data for the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population were collected using computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI). This report is based on 31,044 interviews of adults age 18 years and over. Statistics shown in this report were age adjusted to the year 2000 U.S. standard population.
Sixty-two percent of adults used some form of CAM therapy during the past 12 months when the definition of CAM therapy included prayer specifically for health reasons. When prayer specifically for health reasons was excluded from the definition, 36% of adults used some form of CAM therapy during the past 12 months. The 10 most commonly used CAM therapies during the past 12 months were use of prayer specifically for one's own health (43.0%), prayer by others for one's own health (24.4%), natural products (18.9%), deep breathing exercises (11.6%), participation in prayer group for one's own health (9.6%), meditation (7.6%), chiropractic care (7.5%), yoga (5.1%), massage (5.0%), and diet-based therapies (3.5%). Use of CAM varies by sex, race, geographic region, health insurance status, use of cigarettes or alcohol, and hospitalization. CAM was most often used to treat back pain or back problems, head or chest colds, neck pain or neck problems, joint pain or stiffness, and anxiety or depression. Adults age 18 years or over who used CAM were more likely to do so because they believed that CAM combined with conventional medical treatments would help (54.9%) and/or they thought it would be interesting to try (50.1%). Most adults who have ever used CAM have used it within the past 12 months, although there is variation by CAM therapy.
Many people use prayer, and some studies have shown a positive association between prayer and improved health outcomes. This article explores four possible mechanisms by which prayer may lead to improved health. While acknowledging the efficacy of prayer and recognising the needs of patients, prayer, being a personal spiritual practice, cannot be prescribed, nor should it be used in place of medical care.
A survey of more than six hundred miracle records in the canonization files of the Vatican Secret Archives from the seventeenth century to the twentieth century reveals that more than 95 percent are healings from illness. The history of the canonization process is summarized to explain the sources. The diagnoses amenable to miracle cure change through time to reflect current medical preoccupations and methods. Physician testimony has always been crucial to the investigation of miracles for declaring the hopeless prognosis and the surprise at recovery. From this analysis, medicine and religion emerge as parallel semiotic endeavors, using their canons of wisdom and careful observation to derive meaning in suffering.
We analyzed how patients use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and examined how patients' perspectives relate to existing, expert-led taxonomies.
We conducted semistructured interviews with 46 people who used CAM in southern England, then performed a qualitative thematic analysis of the interviews.
CAM appeared to be used in 4 different ways: as treats, and as alternative, complementary, or conventional treatments. Treats were portrayed as personal luxuries, not directed at an identified health need. Systematic differences in the context, anticipated benefits, and implications for financial justification were revealed when nonmedical therapies were viewed and used as alternative, complementary, or conventional treatments. Specific CAM practices were viewed and used in different ways by different participants.
Some participants used CAM practices as a personal luxury, not as a health care technology. This is incongruent with existing expert-led taxonomies. Physicians and researchers need to be aware that patients' views of what constitutes CAM can differ radically from their own. They should choose their terminology carefully to initiate meaningful dialogue with their patients and research participants.
A survey of more than six hundred miracle records in the canonization files of the Vatican Secret Archives from the seventeenth century to the twentieth century reveals that more than 95 percent are healings from illness. The history of the canonization process is summarized to explain the sources. The diagnoses amenable to miracle cure change through time to reflect current medical preoccupations and methods. Physician testimony has always been crucial to the investigation of miracles for declaring the hopeless prognosis and the surprise at recovery. From this analysis, medicine and religion emerge as parallel semiotic endeavors, using their canons of wisdom and careful observation to derive meaning in suffering.
The most general conclusion of this analysis indicates a correlation of experiencing various religious sensations with the religious affiliation of the respondents in the broadest sense, what was also evidenced in all the researches mentioned in this text. Most of the respondents did not connect the most widely spread religious experiences related to the context of a predominant traditional church religiosity with the experience of supranatural forces. Obviously, this notion did not evoke in them any Christian, respectively Catholic context in which prevail religious experiences of God of a lower intensity especially in relation to the experiences that belong more often to some other Christian traditions, to those that don't necessary belong to the Christian tradition or to the ones from the field of various alternative spiritualities. Most of the experiences are emphatically connected to the folk religiosity, to the pilgrimage to Medjugorje, in particular. The more the respondents are religious and attend the church mess more frequently, the more often they have religious experiences, being they of a lower or higher intensity but not, of course, the experiences from the domain of alternative spiritualities. When related to the socio-dernographic indicators, the figures also fit into the existing results of the researches of some other dimensions of religiosity. So, more widely spread religious sensations of a lesser intensity are experienced by the respondents with a lower degree of education, women or from underdeveloped regions of Croatia. The presence of some supranatural force that did not have any connection with the notion of God as it is perceived in the Catholic tradition, as well as some sensations from the field of the occult are more experienced by more educated respondents, those from the cities, practically equally men and women, evenly spread across the all Croatian regions. Besides the awareness of many problems related to the research of the religious experience in connection to its conceptualization, operationalization, measurement and defining, this paper also deals with an awareness of a delicacy of the interpretation of the religious experience, especially when it is examined only by using the quantitative methodology.
The reality of prayer lies at the centre of Christian living. The whole of the Christian religious tradition, in its various branches and currents, is in large part a doctrine about prayer. Through his works, Marulić is classified among religious teachers of no small significance. His works, as is well known, educated generations of religious and of pious laymen. It can in fact be said that Marulić represents himself in his works not only as a man of prayer, but as a teacher of prayer. The article is primarily interested in the theology of prayer in Marulić’s discourse, that is, it endeavours to delve into the profundities of Marulić’s doctrine of prayer, as well as of his personal supplication. Marulić’s works reveal that his personal prayers were influenced by the sources that he used (the Scriptures and the fathers), as well as by the time in which he lived. On the other hand, his doctrine of prayer also reveals his personal experience, and at once endeavours to be grounded in the Bible and in Patristic sources, which gives both weight and currency to his work, in his time and today. On the basis of his profoundly lived experience of the closeness and presence of God, as well as of his own sinfulness, which had a deep effect on his life, Marulić can, without doubt, be included among the Christian mystics. His mystic experience is most probably devoid of any extra-sensory phenomena (levitation, visions and the like), and yet nonetheless mystical for that. It is not surprising then that Silvano Razzi, translator of Marulić’s Evangelistarum into Italian, in the accompanying dedicatory epistle, writes that he had been told by »many learned and educated persons that of all that they had read in their life no work had more incited them to the spiritual life… than they had felt that this work had done«. In other words, throughout the 16th century, Marulić’s works were recognised as writings that served for the development of the Christian spiritual life, as spiritual manuals, as it were. In them, the chapters about prayer are certainly not among those of lesser importance.
The paper deals with certain aspects of healing miracles in the 17th century. In the beginning I outline methods recently developed in the history of medicine to deal with unnatural phenomena. I use division suggested by Anne-Marie Korte and comment on sceptical, apologetical and hermeneutical approach. Further I demonstrate difficulties which we face in study of miracles on two specific cases: Our Lady of Foy, and (missing) burning scars of injured brewers. In the end I describe perhaps the most specific contemporary definition of "miraculous" which stemmed from tradition of forensic medicine. For this purpose I use a treaties of Johannes Franciscus Löw ab Erlsfeld, professor of Prague Medical Faculty in the beginning of the 18th century which follow work of famous papal physician of the previous century Paolo Zacchia.
Prayer is amongst the oldest and most widespread interventions used with the intention of alleviating illness and promoting good health. Given the significance of this response to illness for a large proportion of the world's population, there has been considerable interest in recent years in measuring the efficacy of intercessory prayer for the alleviation of ill health in a scientifically rigorous fashion. The question of whether this may contribute towards proving or disproving the existence of God is a philosophical question lying outside the scope of this review of the effects of prayer. This revised version of the review has been prepared in response to feedback and to reflect new methods in the conduct and presentation of Cochrane reviews.
To review the effects of intercessory prayer as an additional intervention for people with health problems already receiving routine health care.
We systematically searched ten relevant databases including MEDLINE and EMBASE (June 2007).
We included any randomised trial comparing personal, focused, committed and organised intercessory prayer with those interceding holding some belief that they are praying to God or a god versus any other intervention. This prayer could be offered on behalf of anyone with health problems.
We extracted data independently and analysed it on an intention to treat basis, where possible. We calculated, for binary data, the fixed-effect relative risk (RR), their 95% confidence intervals (CI), and the number needed to treat or harm (NNT or NNH).
Ten studies are included in this updated review (7646 patients). For the comparison of intercessory prayer plus standard care versus standard care alone, overall there was no clear effect of intercessory prayer on death, with the effect not reaching statistical significance and data being heterogeneous (6 RCTs, n=6784, random-effects RR 0.77 CI 0.51 to 1.16, I(2) 83%). For general clinical state there was also no significant difference between groups (5 RCTs, n=2705, RR intermediate or bad outcome 0.98 CI 0.86 to 1.11). Four studies found no effect for re-admission to Coronary Care Unit (4 RCTs, n=2644, RR 1.00 CI 0.77 to 1.30).Two other trials found intercessory prayer had no effect on re-hospitalisation (2 RCTs, n=1155, RR 0.93 CI 0.71 to 1.22).
These findings are equivocal and, although some of the results of individual studies suggest a positive effect of intercessory prayer,the majority do not and the evidence does not support a recommendation either in favour or against the use of intercessory prayer. We are not convinced that further trials of this intervention should be undertaken and would prefer to see any resources available for such a trial used to investigate other questions in health care.
This paper summarizes theoretical perspectives from psychology supportive of a healing effect of faith. First, faith is defined as a congruence of belief, trust, and obedience in relation to God or the divine. Second, evidence for a faith-healing association is presented, empirically and in theory. To exemplify religiously sanctioned affirmation of such a connection, selected passages are cited from the Jewish canon attesting to biblical and rabbinic support for a faith factor in longevity, disease risk, mental health and well-being, disease prevention, and healing. Third, reference to theories of hope, learned optimism, positive illusions, and opening up or disclosure, and to theory and research on psychoneuroimmunology and placebos, demonstrates that contemporary psychology can accommodate a healing power of faith. This is summarized in a typology of five hypothesized mechanisms underlying a faith-healing association, termed behavioral/conative, interpersonal, cognitive, affective, and psychophysiological. Finally, implications are discussed for the rapprochement of religion and medicine.
This critical review seeks to identify if there is evidence that private (personal) prayer is capable of improving wellbeing for adult patients in hospital.
The review was conducted in the belief that the spiritual needs of hospitalised patients may be enhanced by encouragement and support to engage in prayer.
Systematic review.
A systematic approach was used to gather evidence from published studies. In the absence of experimental research involving this type of population, evidence from qualitative and correlational studies was critically reviewed. Results. The findings indicate that private prayer, when measured by frequency, is usually associated with lower levels of depression and anxiety. Most of the studies that show positive associations between prayer and wellbeing were located in areas that have strong Christian traditions and samples reported a relatively high level of religiosity, church attendance and use of prayer. Church attenders, older people, women, those who are poor, less well educated and have chronic health problems appear to make more frequent use of prayer. Prayer appears to be a coping action that mediates between religious faith and wellbeing and can take different forms. Devotional prayers involving an intimate dialogue with a supportive God appear to be associated with improved optimism, wellbeing and function. In contrast, prayers that involve pleas for help may, in the absence of a pre-existing faith, be associated with increased distress and possibly poorer function.
Future research needs to differentiate the effects of different types of prayer.
Encouragement to engage in prayer should be offered only following assessment of the patient's faith and likely content and form of prayer to be used. Hospitalised patients who lack faith and whose prayers involve desperate pleas for help are likely to need additional support from competent nursing and chaplaincy staff.
A few years ago Everson and I assembled all the examples of spontaneous regression in the world medical literature from 1900 to 1960 and added numerous cases from expriences of our friends. Our figure was 176. We excluded squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, leukemia, Hodgkin's disease, and a large number of cases that did not fulfill the prerequisites of confirmed diagnosis and no significant treatment. The four most common examples of regression were carcinoma of the kidney (31), neuroblastoma (29), malignant melanoma (19), and choriocarcinoma (19); these constituted more than half the group. We did not require that the regression be permanent because it appeared that the explanation of temporary regression would be just as important as the cause of permanent regression. There was no proven specific cause of the regression, but the following mechanisms had a possible relationship: immunologic action, elimination of carcinogens, trauma (altering the antigen-antibody relationship), hormones, irradiation, infection and/or fever, and drugs or chemicals. The most applicable of these is elimination of the carcinogen. Immunologic reactions seem to offer the best explanation, and the potential of humoral immunity is more impressive than that of cellular immunity.
Faith in paranormal cures has always been the last hope of many sufferers from chronic or incurable diseases. Magico-religious rituals of healing are still around, but some have been replaced by pseudo-scientific systems, thinly disguising old superstitions in new obscurantism, more appealing to the half-educated. In medical quackery, inventiveness seems to be limitless, and only the main paranormal healing systems can be reviewed here. The increasing popularity of 'alternative' healing indicates the extent of dissatisfaction with dehumanising aspects of modern, technological medicine and its preoccupation with curing the curable at the expense of caring for the incurable. This leaves the sufferers, and also healthy people labelled with non-existent diseases, bleeding prey for the sharks roving the seas of medical ignorance.
The first of two essays in this issue demonstrated that the United States has had a rich history of medical pluralism. This essay seeks to present an overview of contemporary unconventional medical practices in the United States. No clear definition of "alternative medicine" is offered because it is a residual category composed of heterogeneous healing methods. A descriptive taxonomy of contemporary unconventional healing could be more helpful. Two broad categories of unconventional medicine are described here: a more prominent, "mainstream" complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and a more culture-bound, "parochial" unconventional medicine. The CAM component can be divided into professional groups, layperson-initiated popular health reform movements, New Age healing, alternative psychological therapies, and non-normative scientific enterprises. The parochial category can be divided into ethno-medicine, religious healing, and folk medicine. A topologic examination of U.S. health care can provide an important conceptual framework through which health care providers can understand the current situation in U.S. medical pluralism.
In considering whether medical miracles occur, the limits of epistemology bring us to confront our metaphysical worldview of medicine and nature in general. This raises epistemological questions of a higher order. David Hume's understanding of miracles as violations of the laws of nature assumes that nature is completely regular, whereas doctrines such as C. S. Peirce's "tychism" hold that there is an element of absolute chance in the workings of the universe. Process philosophy gives yet another view of the working of nature. Physicians have no epistemological grounds for declaring any cure to be miraculous. Miracles are theological (or philosophical) entities, and not medical entities. All physicians can do is to determine whether or not a cure is scientifically inexplicable according to the current epistemological standards of medical science. As these standards change, what is currently unexplainable may become explainable. However, we can also come to realize that our current explanations are in fact unsatisfactory. Our justifications of knowledge claims about miracles will depend on our views about determinism and indeterminism. If the universe is not a deterministic one, we should be open to the possibility of encountering what appear to us as sui generis events. These would not be violations of immutable laws of nature, but manifestations of the true workings of nature, and certainly causes for wonder.
Recent works on Lourdes have tended to emphasize the positive personal, social, and spiritual aspects of a pilgrimage, while downplaying the role of religious politics in (over)determining discussions around the events taking place there over the course of the Third Republic. This paper seeks to reassert the extent to which the medical community remained divided, along religious lines, over the existence and nature of the cures taking place at Lourdes well into the twentieth century, while analyzing how Catholic physicians were able to create an aura of therapeutic credibility around the cures.
Prayer is an ancient healing practice not generally available in our health care system. However, the majority of Americans believe in the healing power of prayer. A recent Time/CNN poll found that 82% of Americans believe that prayer can cure serious illness, 73% believe that praying for others can cure illness, and 64% want their physicians to pray with them. Nurses should know what prayer is, should be familiar with the growing body of literature on the effectiveness of prayer, and understand potential uses of prayer as part of holistic nursing practice.
Using MEDLINE, (limited to the English language and the reference lists of the randomized controlled trials (RCTs), we assessed the impact of religion on health outcomes via systematic, critical review of the medical literature. All RCTs published from 1966 to 1999 and all non-RCTs published from 1996 to 1999 that assessed a relationship between religion and measurable health outcome were examined. We excluded studies dealing with non-religious spirituality, ethical issues, coping, well-being, or life satisfaction. We used the Canadian Medical Association Journal's guidelines for systematic review of the medical literature to evaluate each manuscript. Nine RCTs and 25 non-RCTs met these inclusion/exclusion criteria. Randomized controlled trials showed that intercessory prayer may improvehealth outcomes in patients admitted to a coronary care unit but showed no effect on alcohol abuse. Islamic-based psychotherapy speeds recovery from anxiety and depression in Muslims. Non-RCTs indicate that religious activities appear to benefit blood pressure, immune function, depression, and mortality.
Miracles which can be observed in different religions are often closely connected to medicine. These miraculous cures, considered to be inexplicable by medical science, have been documented in Christian religion and in occidental culture for more than 2000 years. These miraculous healings are also reported in the field of dermatology. The miraculous bulletins documented by the Catholic Church take their beginning in the Old Testament and extend to the miraculous cures of Lourdes in present time. We provide an overview of miraculous healings of skin diseases, whereby accounts documented in the Bible, reports during the Middle Ages, and cases documented throughout the last century are discussed. In view of modern medicine, most of the miraculous healings do not meet modern demands of science, but remain important as milestones in medical and religious history.
Investigate the relevance of interpersonal belief factors as modifiers of the effectiveness of intercessory prayer.
Randomized clinical trial.
Community-dwelling adults recruited from seven local church groups.
Eighty-six (86) male and female participants 18-88 years of age were randomly assigned to either treatment (n = 45) or control groups (n = 41).
Several volunteers committed to daily prayer for participants in the intervention group. Intercessory prayer commenced for 1 month and were directed toward a life concern or problem disclosed by the participant at baseline. Participants were unaware of being prayed for. Outcomes measures: Degree to which their problem had been resolved and the current level of concern they had about a specific life problem they described at baseline. Four component scores from the Medical Outcomes Study SF-20 were also used.
No direct intervention effect on the primary outcomes was found. A marginally significant reduction in the amount of pain was observed in the intervention group compared to controls. The amount of concern for baseline problems at follow-up was significantly lower in the intervention group when stratified by subject's baseline degree of belief that their problem could be resolved. Prayer intervention appeared to effectively reduce the subject's level of concern only if the subject initially believed that the problem could be resolved. Those in the intervention group who did not believe in a possible resolution to their problem did not differ from controls. Better physical functioning was observed in the intervention group among those with a higher belief in prayer and surprisingly, better mental health scores were observed in the control group with lower belief in prayer scores.
The results of the current study underscore the role of interpersonal belief in prayer efficacy and are consistent with the literature showing the relevance of belief in health and well-being in general. The relevance of interpersonal belief factors of the participants is recommended in future investigations.
The effects of distant, intercessory prayer on health outcomes have been studied in a range of randomised, blinded clinical trials. However, while seeking the evidentiary status accorded this 'gold standard' methodology, many prayer studies fall short of the requirements of the World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki for the ethical conduct of trials involving human subjects. Within a sample of 15 such studies published in the medical literature, many were found to have ignored or waived key ethical precepts, including adequate standards of care, patient confidentiality and informed consent. Prayer was considered in most studies to pose negligible or no risk to subjects, despite the fact that no clear mechanism of action nor any safety monitoring procedures were described. As a result, many studies did not meet basic ethical standards required of clinical trials of biophysical interventions, making application of their results ethically problematic. If investigators wish their data to adequately inform the use or rejection of intercessory prayer to improve health, these shortcomings should be addressed in future studies.
Many Americans use religious activity to cope with stressful life events. Our goal was to review systematically the recent medical literature to assess the role of religion in health outcomes.
We conducted a comprehensive literature search using MEDLINE to identify studies published in the English language between January 1999 and June 2003 describing the effect of religion on health outcomes. The search strategy used the medical subject headings (MeSH) of religion; religion AND medicine; religion OR intercessory prayer; prayer; prayer therapy; religious rites; faith; medicine, traditional; religiosity; religion AND psychology; and religion AND health.
Religious, but not spiritual, interventions were selected for inclusion. Thus, papers describing interventions such as yoga, meditation, acupuncture, and qigong were excluded. Manuscripts describing randomized controlled trials, clinical trials, and partnerships with faith-based organizations were included.
We found five randomized controlled trials, four clinical trials, and seven faith-based partnerships that describe the impact of religious intervention on health outcomes. Papers were analyzed by four reviewers using a modified Delphi technique to reach consensus.
Religious intervention such as intercessory prayer may improve success rates of in vitro fertilization, decrease length of hospital stay and duration of fever in septic patients, increase immune function, improve rheumatoid arthritis, and reduce anxiety. Frequent attendance at religious services likely improves health behaviors. Moreover, prayer may decrease adverse outcomes in patients with cardiac disease.
Religious activity may improve health outcomes.
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