October 16, 2003 – People who have recently had surgery and who are prayed for do not heal better or faster than others, say researchers in the United States.
This conclusion stems from the MANTRA study1, whose preliminary results had suggested that prayer seemed to lead to a reduction of about 25% in the number of unwanted post-surgical incidents, such as death or heart attack.
For the purposes of this study, 750 patients were recruited and divided into two equal groups. As soon as possible before the surgery, the researchers asked followers of several religions to pray for half of their participants.
Preliminary results which indicated a possible effectiveness of prayer were, however, only based on the study of 150 of the 750 people who participated in the study. If the 750 participants are taken into consideration, the use of prayer seems to have had no impact. A new, more ambitious study involving 1,500 patients is due to start soon.
Several religious leaders denounced the results, even the intention, of this study. One of them said that prayer cannot be compared to a vending machine that you insert a coin into to get what you want.
The MANTRA study began in the late 1990s at Duke University when lead researcher Mitchell Krucoff found that patients who were regularly visited by those around them seemed to recover better than others. Because Duke University is located in North Carolina, an area of America where people have very strong religious beliefs, Krucoff wondered if knowing that people were praying for them might help some. patients to heal better.
Note in closing that this study only focused on the effectiveness of prayer performed by others. Prayer performed by the patient himself appears to have observable and measurable positive health effects.
Jean-Benoit Legault – PasseportSanté.net
According to BBC News; October 16, 2003.
1. Mitchell W. Krucoff, MD. The MANTRA Study Project. Interview by Bonnie Horrigan. Altern Ther Health Med. 1999 May; 5 (3): 74-82.
