23 Jul 2009

The evidence for the effectiveness of prayer (there's isn't any)

These findings are equivocal and, although some of the results of individual studies suggest a positive effect of intercessory prayer,the majority do not and the evidence does not support a recommendation either in favour or against the use of intercessory prayer. We are not convinced that further trials of this intervention should be undertaken and would prefer to see any resources available for such a trial used to investigate other questions in health care.

The Cochrane Collaboration collates the evidence on intercessory prayer.