Religion, for many years, was not seen as a typical or practical part of healing in conventional medicine. Medical schools are now trying to do a better job teaching future doctors to take into account a patient’s ethnicity and cultural ties when discussing care and treatment options. This does not mean that prayer itself is taught as a therapeutic modality. Rather, it is more likely that many physicians may still feel quite shy when approaching patients about questions of spirituality and prayer. Prayer itself may be much more a tool and comfort to patients than is currently being practiced right now.
The last 10-15 years have brought forth much more research on prayer. Studies centered around prayer can become very complicated because so many questions could be asked: does prayer help heal the patient, should the patient know they are being prayed for, are there specific ways we should pray when we are sick? Each of those questions could then be asked for nearly every condition, such as trauma, heart disease or cancer. There have been some studies which looked at a portion of these questions. Some studies have found prayer to be helpful to the patient even if the patient did not specifically know they were being prayed for. Studies have found that patients admitted to critical care units have benefited from intercessory prayer, prayer that is not in person or even known by the subject [Source: Byrd, Harris]. These patients did not necessarily live longer or always stay in the hospital less, but the group receiving prayers often had less complicating issues, needed less ventilator support and less antibiotics. Another study looking at anxiety and depression found that subjects who prayed for a second group, and the members receiving the prayers in the second group both enjoyed improvements in several parameters of mood [Source: O'Laoire]. Another study with rheumatoid arthritis patients found intercessory prayer was not as helpful but prayer in person with the patient was very helpful with symptoms [Source: Matthews]. Prayer is not always found to decrease hospital stays or lead to less significant events like heart attack, but it is very interesting how many patients find prayer helpful. In one study following patient satisfaction, over 90 percent of patients who were offered prayer accepted the opportunity [Source: Mann]. For many years doctor’s care and spirituality have had very different places in health care. The combination of the two may lead to greater satisfaction for many patients wanting to experience these together.
Perhaps patient satisfaction, comfort and care is one of the greatest assets of prayer. For many, the belief of a communication with a higher power is an important part of their faith. In addition to belief may come the benefit of intention, or energy directed toward the patient. Positive intention has been studied in many creative ways. For example, a study looked at chocolate that was supposed to be enhanced with positive intentions. Participants did not know which chocolate had been “mentally enhanced”, but still chose the chocolate that had received the positive intentions. Another study used water that was treated with positive intentions by a group of individuals from a completely different geographic area. A separate set of judges who did not know which water sets had been treated chose the water treated with positive intention to produce the prettiest ice crystal patterns [Source: Radin]. Patients have often commented to me how important it is to know their family, friends, churches and others are praying for them.
Prayer is often a prominent aspect of one’s spiritually. In times of illness, prayer is often a source of comfort and inner strength. Most patients that I experience are not praying for a miracle cure, but rather for hope, strength, comfort and peace. Many times they are not necessarily asking me to pray for them but very often enjoy and are grateful for the opportunity to discuss spirituality or prayer. We may never fully clarify when, why and how prayer works for a scientific journal, but many now feel that spirituality has a place in medicine. Nor should we discount the power of prayer for those wanting to pursue it. Hospitals now take extra efforts to ask religious or spiritual affiliations when someone is admitted to a hospital. Now may also be the time that both doctors and patients open channels of communication of preferences on spirituality and prayer in efforts to help both mind and body.
