Written by Joyce Smith, BS. This study demonstrates the benefits of direct contact person-to-person prayer as an adjunct to standard medical care for patients with depression and anxiety.
In terms of disability as measured as “time in bed”, depression ranks higher than lung diseases, diabetes, and arthritis and is only surpassed by heart disease 1. By 2020 depression will rank as the second largest health burden worldwide (World Health Organization) 2,3. Many people suffering from the pain of mental illness, emotional problems, or situational difficulties seek refuge in religion and prayer for comfort, hope and meaning. While studies on remote intercessory prayer 4,5 have shown questionable results, studies utilizing prayers and the direct “laying on of hands” have shown improved “well-being” 6, even with debilitating illnesses such as chronic rheumatoid arthritis 7. Rather than intercessory prayers that request God’s intercession, the prayers in this study ask for forgiveness and for healing of past stresses. Both “remote intercessory” and “laying on of hands” prayer requests have been shown to have positive outcomes which may be attributed to the fact that during these prayers there is a separation of past and present traumatic memories from their corresponding negative emotions, and a mitigation of emotional triggers.
Researchers hypothesize that person-to-person prayers conducted by a Christian lay minister can lessen depression and anxiety, lower salivary cortisol and invoke emotions of hope and spirituality. This cross-over clinical trial of 74 depressed and anxious participants (95% women) were randomized into a person-to-person prayer contact intervention group (n=27) receiving six weekly 1-hour prayer sessions and a control group of 36 who received no prayers. Both intervention and control groups completed the Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression and Anxiety, Life Orientation Test, and Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale, and had cortisol levels recorded. Rating scales and cortisol levels were repeated at baseline and repeated after a 6-week prayer intervention, a one-month follow up of no prayer intervention, a post 6-week crossover intervention, and lastly a one-month follow up of no intervention. ANOVAs were used to compare pre- and post-prayer measures for each prayer group.
At the completion of the trial, those receiving the prayer intervention significantly decreased their depression and anxiety, increased their optimism, and their daily spiritual experiences compared to controls (p < 0.01 in all cases). They also maintained these significant improvements (p < 0.01 in all cases) for at least 1 month after the final prayer session while control group participants demonstrated no significant changes during the study. Cortisol levels were not significantly different between the prayer and control groups or between the pre- and post-prayer conditions.
This study was not blinded, had no sham control and cannot be generalized to men because of only three male participants. Because it transpired in the “Bible Belt” of the United States, where the demographics of the area are predominantly a Christian denominational mix, the results do not apply to other religious beliefs.
Researchers believe that just as studies can utilize PET and fMRI in the treatment of depression to delineate the brain effects of psychotherapy and drugs, so too can future studies utilize these tools to investigate what happens in the brain when prayers can separate traumatic memories from their hurtful emotions and release positive emotions to activate a form of self-directed neuroplasticity 8. From a psychotherapeutic perspective the traumatic memory stands as a fact of life without emotional significance and immunity to triggering events9. Future studies are warranted to replicate and expand this knowledge.
Source: Boelens, Peter A., Roy R. Reeves, William H. Replogle, and Harold G. Koenig. “A randomized trial of the effect of prayer on depression and anxiety.” The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine 39, no. 4 (2009): 377-392.
© 2009, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.
Posted July 18, 2018.
Joyce Smith, BS, is a degreed laboratory technologist. She received her bachelor of arts with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Biology from the University of Saskatchewan and her internship through the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She currently resides in Bloomingdale, IL.
References:
- Wells KB SR, Sherbourne CD et al. Caring for Depression. Boston; Harvard University Press; 1998.
- Murray CJ, Lopez AD, Organization WH. The global burden of disease: a comprehensive assessment of mortality and disability from diseases, injuries, and risk factors in 1990 and projected to 2020: summary. 1996.
- WHO. WHO/ The Global Burden of Disease 2004 part 3 Disease Incidence prevalence and disability; 36. 2004.
- Byrd RC. Positive therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer in a coronary care unit population. Southern medical journal. 1988;81(7):826-829.
- Benson H, Dusek JA, Sherwood JB, et al. Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: a multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer. American heart journal. 2006;151(4):934-942.
- Connerney I, Shapiro PA, McLaughlin JS, Bagiella E, Sloan RP. Relation between depression after coronary artery bypass surgery and 12-month outcome: a prospective study. The Lancet. 2001;358(9295):1766-1771.
- Matthews DA, Marlowe SM, MacNutt FS. Effects of intercessory prayer on patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Southern Medical Journal. 2000;93(12):1177-1186.
- Schwartz JM, Stapp HP, Beauregard M. Quantum physics in neuroscience and psychology: a neurophysical model of mind–brain interaction. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences. 2005;360(1458):1309-1327.
- Kandel. In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind. W. W. Norton & Company; 2007.
