ARE you depressed? Are you anxious about what tomorrow will bring? Has the stress of everyday life overtaken you? Have you lost your peace and can no longer sleep? Pray.
Prayer as defined by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) in the United States (U.S.) is an active process of communicating with and appealing to a higher spiritual power. “In every culture and tradition there appears to be a spiritual practice that focuses on some form of deeper interaction with a higher entity.”
Proponents have argued that prayer is perhaps the most deeply human response to disease, and that it may relieve suffering by some mechanism that is not yet understood.
Skeptics have contended that studying prayer is a waste of money and that it presupposes supernatural intervention, putting it by definition beyond the reach of science.
However, scientists have explored four possible mechanisms by which prayer may lead to improved health. The mechanisms include: as a relaxation response; as a placebo; as an expression of positive emotions; and as a channel for supernatural intervention.
Scientists said although they acknowledge the efficacy of prayer and recognise the needs of patients, prayer, being a personal spiritual practice, cannot be prescribed, nor should it be used in place of medical care.
A new study published last week in Journal of Affective Disorders concluded that belief in God might improve treatment for those suffering with depression.
According to the research carried out by McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, U.S., faith in a higher being has been found to significantly improve treatment for people suffering with a psychiatric illness.
Researchers followed 159 patients over the course of a year at the Behavioral Health Partial Hospital program at McLean to investigate the relationship between a patient’s level of belief in God, expectations for treatment and actual treatment outcomes.
Each participant was asked to gauge their belief in God as well as their expectations for treatment outcome on a five-point scale. Levels of depression, wellbeing, and self-harm were assessed at the beginning and end of their treatment programme.
The researchers found that patients with ‘no’ or only ‘slight’ belief in God were twice as likely not to respond to treatment than patients with higher levels of belief. And more than 30 per cent of patients claiming no specific religious affiliation still saw the same benefits in treatment if their belief in God was rated as moderately or very high.
The researchers concluded that a belief in God is associated with improved treatment outcomes in psychiatric care.
Supporting the current study is another work published in 2009 in International Journal of Psychiatry and Medicine concluded: “Direct contact person-to-person prayer may be useful as an adjunct to standard medical care for patients with depression and anxiety. Further research in this area is indicated.”
The study is titled “A randomised trial of the effect of prayer on depression and anxiety.”
The researchers from the University of Mississippi, U.S. investigated the effect of direct contact person-to-person prayer on depression, anxiety, positive emotions, and salivary cortisol levels.
According to the study, cross-over clinical trial with depression or anxiety conducted in an office setting. Following randomisation to the prayer intervention or control groups, subjects (95 per cent women) completed Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression and Anxiety, Life Orientation Test, Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale, and underwent measurement of cortisol levels.
Individuals in the direct person-to-person prayer contact intervention group received six weekly one-hour prayer sessions while those in the control group received none. Rating scales and cortisol levels were repeated for both groups after completion of the prayer sessions, and a month later. Analysis of Variance (ANOVAs) were used to compare pre- and post-prayer measures for each group.
The researchers wrote: “At the completion of the trial, participants receiving the prayer intervention showed significant improvement of depression and anxiety, as well as increases of daily spiritual experiences and optimism compared to controls. Subjects in the prayer group maintained these significant improvements for a duration of at least one month after the final prayer session.
“Participants in the control group did not show significant changes during the study. Cortisol levels did not differ significantly between intervention and control groups, or between pre- and post-prayer conditions.”
The researchers of the study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, noted: “Our work suggests that people with a moderate to high level of belief in a higher power do significantly better in short-term psychiatric treatment than those without, regardless of their religious affiliation.”
David Rosmarin, McLean Hospital clinician and instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical said that belief was associated with not only improved psychological wellbeing, but a decrease in depression and intention to self-harm. He explained: “I hope that this work will lead to larger studies and increased funding in order to help as many people as possible.”
However, a study published in American Heart Journal in 2006 found that prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery.
The researchers suggested that patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of post-operative complications like abnormal heart rhythms, perhaps because of the expectations the prayers created.
Because it is the most scientifically rigorous investigation of whether prayer can heal illness, the study, begun almost a decade ago and involving more than 1,800 patients, has for years been the subject of speculation.
Previous studies have highlighted the power of prayer on a person’s health. Research at San Francisco General Hospital monitored the effects of prayer on 393 cardiac patients.
Patients were asked if they wanted to take part in the trial but were not told whether they would be the subject of prayers.
Half were prayed for by a group of strangers who only had the patients’ names.
Those who were prayed for had fewer complications, fewer cases of pneumonia and needed less drug treatment.
They also improved more quickly and were able to leave hospital earlier.
A separate study, at Columbia University in New York, asked people in Australia, the U.S. and Canada to pray for named people undergoing In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatment in Korea.
Of the group in Korea, half had prayers said about them by the foreign strangers.
Among this half, the success rate for implantation of the embryo in the womb went up from eight per cent to 16 per cent. Cases of successful conception - where the foetus started developing - went up from 25 to 50 per cent.
According to a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia, the spiritual search for meaning and hope in life is integral to human existence. The study reads: “This is particularly evident during times of personal stress and crisis. Recent census findings indicate that 74 per cent of Australians and 96 per cent of Americans believe in a higher power, and similar percentages claim some form of religious affiliation.
“Evidence also suggests that certain spiritual beliefs and the practice of prayer are associated with improved coping and better health outcomes. Although North Americans have been the predominant participants in most of the research available, the findings are relevant to the Australian experience, as they reflect a basic human desire for supernatural involvement in matters of health and wellbeing.”
The researchers concluded: “Throughout history, people have used prayer in relation to their own health and the health of others. While prayer continues to be a prevalent practice, scientific research on the health benefits of prayer is still in its infancy. To gain a clearer understanding of why people derive health benefits from prayer, future studies need to identify the unique markers that differentiate prayer from other non-spiritual practices.
“Researchers must also accept that some aspects of prayer may not be transparent to scientific investigation and may go beyond the reach of science. In the clinical context, prayer should not be specifically prescribed or seen as a substitute for medical treatment, but should be recognised as an important resource for coping with pain and illness and improving health and general wellbeing.”
Research has also been conducted on the effects of intercessory prayer in coronary care patients. In the late 1980s, a study in San Francisco, U.S., reported that heart patients who were prayed for by others appeared to have fewer complications, although length of hospital stay and death rates did not differ between those who were prayed for and those who were not.
A larger study at a Kansas City hospital coronary care unit, United States, reported similar findings. Although overall length of hospital stay and time in the critical care unit did not differ between groups, the group that had been prayed for had 11 per cent fewer complications. These results suggested that prayer might be helpful when used with conventional medical care, although more research was needed to be sure.
The studies drew a great deal of public attention, and several other studies were done to confirm the findings, with mixed results. When a research group reanalysed 14 of these studies as one group (since larger groups tend to modulate the effects of random chance to give more accurate results), they concluded that intercessory prayer had no effect on any medical outcomes.
In a further study, a group of Harvard researchers studied more than 1,800 patients who were undergoing heart surgery in 2006. The patients were randomly assigned to three groups. The first group was told that prayers would be said for them, while the second and third groups were told that they might or might not have prayers said for them. The first and second groups received prayer, and the third group did not. Complications occurred within 30 days for 59 per cent of the first group, 52 per cent of the second group, and 51 per cent of the third group. Prayer did not reduce complications for those who had heart surgery in this large, well-controlled scientific study.
According to the American Cancer Society, available scientific evidence does not support claims of reduced complications or improved medical outcomes in those who receive prayer.
An analysis of 43 studies on people with advanced cancer noted that those who reported spiritual well-being were able to cope more effectively with terminal illnesses and find meaning in their experience. Major themes of spiritual well-being included self-awareness, coping with stress, connectedness with others, faith, empowerment, confidence, and the ability to live with meaning and hope.
A more recent study found that spiritual well-being was linked with lower distress levels in people who had been treated for colorectal cancer. The researchers reported that the factors with the strongest link to lower emotional distress were finding peace and meaning in their lives. This result would suggest that spiritual well-being might mean less emotional distress at several stages of cancer.
Patient consent is important before conducting any activity that may affect health. Those who do not believe in prayer and those who do not wish to be healed are among those who may not want to be the object of intercessory prayer.
However, the American Cancer Society wrote: “Relying on this type of treatment alone and avoiding or delaying conventional medical care for cancer may have serious health consequences.”
Scientists said although they acknowledge the efficacy of prayer and recognise the needs of patients, prayer, being a personal spiritual practice, cannot be prescribed, nor should it be used in place of medical care. A new study published last week in Journal of Affective Disorders concluded that belief in God might improve treatment for those suffering with depression
Author of this article: CHUKWUMA MUANYA
Culled from The Guardian Newspaper
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