Study: Prayer doesn't affect heart patients

BuckWrestler141 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-30-2006, 03:45 PM

Kind of interesting, but not worthy of the politics section...for now.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/03/30....ap/index.html

Quote:

NEW YORK (AP) -- In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications.

Researchers emphasized their work does not address whether God exists or answers prayers made on another's behalf. The study can only look for an effect from prayers offered as part of the research, they said.

They also said they had no explanation for the higher complication rate in patients who knew they were being prayed for, in comparison to patients who only knew it was possible prayers were being said for them.

The work, which followed about 1,800 patients at six medical centers, was financed by the Templeton Foundation, which supports research into science and religion. It will appear in the American Heart Journal.

Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School and other scientists tested the effect of having three Christian groups pray for particular patients, starting the night before surgery and continuing for two weeks. The volunteers prayed for "a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications" for specific patients, for whom they were given the first name and first initial of the last name.

The patients, meanwhile, were split into three groups of about 600 apiece: those who knew they were being prayed for, those who were prayed for but only knew it was a possibility, and those who weren't prayed for but were told it was a possibility.

The researchers did not ask patients or their families and friends to alter any plans they had for prayer, saying such a step would have been unethical and impractical.

The study looked for any complications within 30 days of the surgery. Results showed no effect of prayer on complication-free recovery. But 59 percent of the patients who knew they were being prayed for developed a complication, versus 52 percent of those who were told it was just a possibility.

Dr. Harold G. Koenig, director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at the Duke University Medical Center, who did not take part in the study, said the results did not surprise him.

"There are no scientific grounds to expect a result and there are no real theological grounds to expect a result either," he said.

Science, he said, "is not designed to study the supernatural."

buckeyegrad · #2 (**permalink**) 03-30-2006, 04:11 PM

Sounds like Dr. Koening summed-up the meaninglessness of the these findings.

Or to put it more bluntly, prayer doesn't work that way.

StooGrimson · #3 (**permalink**) 03-30-2006, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckeyegrad

Or to put it more bluntly, prayer doesn't work that way.

Eh, there are a number of people who do believe it "works" that way including two who work right next to me in my office and a couple relatives of mine. Frankly, if that's what they believe, I could care less. I'm not in the practice of questioning people's faith or the ways in which they believe their faith works.

BrutusMaximus · #4 (**permalink**) 03-30-2006, 06:12 PM

Phew, thank god somebody finally did a study on this. I can quit praying now.

What a joke

Has anybody notice that people in this country think entirely too much? Why is that? It's the same reasons that our movies suck. Subtleness doesnt register, we have to overthink and blow everything up into something that it's not. Maybe we have too much free thought.