Can prayer heal a sick patient? Although polls show that most Americans believe so, scientists are still very divided on the issue. In tomorrow's issue of The Lancet , three psychiatrists criticize several hundred studies to show a link between faith and religious health benefits. In general, they say, these studies do not take into account other factors that can improve health, such as abstinence from tobacco and alcohol. And even scientifically valid studies, they argue, are inconsistent and do not justify bringing religion into medical practice.
Richard Sloan of Columbia University and colleagues examined each article linking religion and physical health they could find in Medline, an online service that indexes of medical studies. Many of them, he said, focused on groups such as Catholic priests or the Benedictine monks, which forbid certain behaviors. Others have looked at the broader population of loyal and found the rates lower disease but failed to take into account that only people who are healthy enough can go to church. When these confounding factors were taken into account, either by the original researchers in a follow-up study or the group of Sloan, the presumed benefits have usually disappeared. Overall, Sloan said, "the evidence is very convincing and weak .... much lower, for example, that the link between marital status and health."
Although prayer for recovery may seem harmless, scientists say many people blame themselves if their prayers are not answered. patients and family members "may be torn by guilt," said Sloan, who is also concerned growing movement to encourage doctors to establish the religion and offer to pray with their patients. "We'd be outraged if a doctor said:" I recommend that you get married, "he said. "Religion, like marriage, is a very personal and private matter."
"Nobody has really shown that religion causes better health," admits Harold Koenig, director of the Center for Religion / spirituality and health at Duke University. In part, he said, it may be due to sloppy science, but it is also because "religiosity" is a difficult concept to quantify. But Koenig says many studies yet to be published not control for confounding variables in how Sloan recommends and still show a positive effect of religion on health. The Lancet paper, Koenig said, is important because few people have questioned the link between religion and health. "Field must meet this challenge to become stronger and better."
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