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Study: Prayer doesn't aid recovery; in fact worsens it
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| HardTranceProd |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...6033000902.html
Prayer Doesn't Aid Recovery, Study Finds
Effect on Healing of Strangers at Distance After Heart-Bypass Surgery Examined
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 31, 2006; Page A06
Praying for other people to recover from an illness is ineffective, according to the largest, best-designed study to examine the power of prayer to heal strangers at a distance.
The study of more than 1,800 heart-bypass patients found that those who had people praying for them had as many complications as those who did not. In fact, one group of patients who knew they were the subject of prayers fared worse.
The long-awaited results, the latest in a series of studies that have not found any benefit from "distant" or "intercessory" prayer, came as a blow to those hoping scientific research would validate the popular notion that people can influence others' health, even if the sick do not know that someone is praying for them.
The researchers cautioned that the study was not designed to test the existence of God or the benefit of other types of prayer, such as praying for oneself or praying at the bedside of friends or relatives. They also did not rule out that other types of distant prayer may be effective for other types of patients.
"No one single study is ever going to provide an answer," said Jeffery A. Dusek of Harvard Medical School, who helped lead the study being published in the April 4 issue of the American Heart Journal.
Although many studies have suggested that praying for oneself may reduce stress, research into praying for others who may not know they are the subject of prayers has been much more controversial. Several studies that claimed to show a benefit have been criticized as deeply flawed. And several of the most recent findings have found no benefit.
The new $2.4 million study, funded primarily by the John Templeton Foundation, was designed to overcome some of those shortcomings. Dusek and his colleagues divided 1,802 bypass patients at six hospitals into three groups. Two groups were uncertain whether they would be the subject of prayers. The third was told they would definitely be prayed for.
The researchers recruited two Catholic groups and one Protestant group to pray "for a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications" for 14 days for each patient, beginning the night before the surgery, using the patient's first name and the first initial of the last name.
Over the next month, the two groups that were uncertain whether they were the subject of prayers fared virtually the same, with about 52 percent of patients experiencing complications regardless of whether they were the subject of prayers.
Surprisingly, 59 percent of the patients who knew they were being prayed for experienced complications.
Because the most common complication was an irregular heartbeat, researchers speculated that knowing they were chosen to receive prayers may have inadvertently put the patients under increased stress.
"Did the patients think, 'I am so sick they had to call in the prayer team?' " said Charles Bethea of the Integris Heart Hospital at Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, who helped conduct the study.
Skeptics said the study should put to rest the notion that distant prayer has any effect.
"I would hope that these results, combined with similar recent findings, would encourage scientists to stick to science and stop dabbling in the supernatural," said Bruce Flamm of the University of California at Irvine.
Even some supporters of incorporating more spirituality into medicine said they hope the findings will put an end to such research.
"It's time now to redirect resources towards supporting studies that try to understand how religious faith influences people's health and well-being through understandable mechanisms," said Harold Koenig of Duke University.
But proponents of such research said the work is important because so many people believe in prayer.
"I would hate to have premature closure based on a handful of studies," said Marilyn J. Schlitz of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Petaluma, Calif. "We just don't know enough about this to close the door."
The findings are unlikely to change the minds of the faithful, several pastors said.
"We welcome and appreciate the involvement of scientists researching faith," said Rob Brendle, associate pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. "But this is just one study. We believe wholeheartedly that prayer changes things. So many of us have experienced that in our lives." |
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| tiesto14 |
| you need a study to tell you that?:conf: |
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| jdat |
| quote: | Originally posted by tiesto14
you need a study to tell you that?:conf: |
I have read studies that proved that prayer did increase health recovery.
I guess the point I am trying to make. Don't believe in studies. |
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| Kapedan |
| Well I think its good to believe and pray for whatever you need. Believing that you might get well one day its good for you. Now you might not, but we never intend for bad things to happend, so having that spiritual feeling is good in my opinion. If we dont pray and think negative, then chances are we are going to fail. |
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| Sunsnail |
| I believe if people stay positive they have a higher chance of recovery or something |
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| Jake Benson |
| quote: | Originally posted by jdat
I have read studies that proved that prayer did increase health recovery. |
I've read a lot of these too. Prayer can work as a placebo. You pray to god and think that god is helping you, when in reality, you're (unconsciously) forming more mind-body interactions (the feeling that something else is healing you reinforces you healing yourself).
| quote: | Originally posted by HardTranceProd
Praying for other people to recover from an illness is ineffective, according to the largest, best-designed study to examine the power of prayer to heal strangers at a distance.
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The researchers recruited two Catholic groups and one Protestant group to pray "for a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications" for 14 days for each patient, beginning the night before the surgery, using the patient's first name and the first initial of the last name.
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Wait, this study from this thread is different from the ones I've previousoly read because the experimenters brought in other people to pray for the patients here.
Prayer for other people doesn't have nearly as much of a placebo effects as the subject themselves praying. I think a BIG confounding variable in this study is that we dont know whether the subjects being prayed for believe in god. If the subjects did not believe in god, or a different god, then the prayers had absolutely no effect (placebo wise). Whereas, in other studies with subjects who prayed themselves, it's implied that they believed in god (thus forming a good placebo bond).
As non-religious as I am, I don't think it's logical to make the generalized conclusion that prayer doesn't work based off of the conditions of this study. |
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| Lepanto |
| for one study that says one thing i'll find you another that says another. or is someone ignorant enough to not believe that here? |
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