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  • Patients in the coronary care unit who received remote, intercessory prayer had fewer overall adverse events, but did not have shorter hospital stays

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Patients in the coronary care unit who received remote, intercessory prayer had fewer overall adverse events, but did not have shorter hospital stays

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebn.3.3.81

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    Harris WS, Gowda M, Kolb JW, et al.A randomized, controlled trial of the effects of remote, intercessory prayer on outcomes in patients admitted to the coronary care unit.Arch Intern Med1999 Oct 25;159:2273–8OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science

    QUESTION: Among patients admitted to a coronary care unit (CCU), does remote, intercessory prayer (praying for others) reduce complications and length of hospital stay?

    Design

    Randomised (allocation concealed), blinded (patients, clinicians, and outcome assessors), controlled trial.

    Setting

    A CCU in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

    Patients

    1013 patients admitted to the CCU over a 12 month period. Patients admitted for work up before transplantation were excluded. Follow up was 98% (23 patients were excluded after randomisation because they were admitted for <1 day).

    Intervention

    484 patients were allocated to intercessory prayer. A total of 75 intercessors were recruited from the community; all intercessors had to agree with the following statements: “I believe in God. I believe that He is personal and is concerned with individual lives. I further believe that He is responsive to prayers for healing made on behalf of the sick.” For each …

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    Footnotes

    • Source of funding: no external funding.

    • For correspondence: Dr W S Harris, Lipid Research Laboratory, Saint Luke's Hospital, 4401 Wornall Road, Kansas City, MO 64111, USA. Fax +1 816 932 8278.