Report for: Prayer and healing: A medical and scientific perspective on randomized controlled trials

Title	Prayer and healing: A medical and scientific perspective on randomized controlled trials
Published in	Indian Journal of Psychiatry, January 2009
DOI	10.4103/0019-5545.58288
Pubmed ID	20048448
Authors	Chittaranjan Andrade, Rajiv Radhakrishnan
Abstract	Religious traditions across the world display beliefs in healing through prayer. The healing powers of prayer have been examined in triple-blind, randomized controlled trials. We illustrate randomized controlled trials on prayer and healing, with one study in each of different categories of outcome. We provide a critical analysis of the scientific and philosophical dimensions of such research. Prayer has been reported to improve outcomes in human as well as nonhuman species, to have no effect on outcomes, to worsen outcomes and to have retrospective healing effects. For a multitude of reasons, research on the healing effects of prayer is riddled with assumptions, challenges and contradictions that make the subject a scientific and religious minefield. We believe that the research has led nowhere, and that future research, if any, will forever be constrained by the scientific limitations that we outline.

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The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 397 tweeters who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.

Geographical breakdown

Country	Count	As %
United States	111	28%
United Kingdom	18	5%
Canada	10	3%
Australia	7	2%
Spain	7	2%
Indonesia	4	1%
France	3	<1%
South Africa	2	<1%
Comoros	2	<1%
Other	36	9%
Unknown	197	50%

Demographic breakdown

Type	Count	As %
Members of the public	357	90%
Scientists	15	4%
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals)	15	4%
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors)	9	2%
Unknown	1	<1%

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 124 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country	Count	As %
United States	1	<1%
Germany	1	<1%
Brazil	1	<1%
Unknown	121	98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status	Count	As %
Student > Master	14	11%
Student > Ph. D. Student	13	10%
Researcher	12	10%
Lecturer	11	9%
Student > Doctoral Student	11	9%
Other	39	31%
Unknown	24	19%

Readers by discipline	Count	As %
Medicine and Dentistry	34	27%
Psychology	22	18%
Nursing and Health Professions	10	8%
Social Sciences	8	6%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences	4	3%
Other	20	16%
Unknown	26	21%

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 489. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 17 March 2023.

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#45,726

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Outputs from Indian Journal of Psychiatry

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#86

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Prayer and healing: A medical and scientific perspective on randomized controlled trials

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