Byrd R C
Medical Service, San Francisco General Medical Center, CA.
South Med J. 1988 Jul;81(7):826-9. doi: 10.1097/00007611-198807000-00005.
The therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer (IP) to the Judeo-Christian God, one of the oldest forms of therapy, has had little attention in the medical literature. To evaluate the effects of IP in a coronary care unit (CCU) population, a prospective randomized double-blind protocol was followed. Over ten months, 393 patients admitted to the CCU were randomized, after signing informed consent, to an intercessory prayer group (192 patients) or to a control group (201 patients). While hospitalized, the first group received IP by participating Christians praying outside the hospital; the control group did not. At entry, chi-square and stepwise logistic analysis revealed no statistical difference between the groups. After entry, all patients had follow-up for the remainder of the admission. The IP group subsequently had a significantly lower severity score based on the hospital course after entry (P less than .01). Multivariant analysis separated the groups on the basis of the outcome variables (P less than .0001). The control patients required ventilatory assistance, antibiotics, and diuretics more frequently than patients in the IP group. These data suggest that intercessory prayer to the Judeo-Christian God has a beneficial therapeutic effect in patients admitted to a CCU.
代祷（向犹太 - 基督教的上帝祈祷）作为最古老的治疗方式之一，其治疗效果在医学文献中鲜有提及。为评估代祷对冠心病监护病房（CCU）患者的影响，我们遵循了一项前瞻性随机双盲方案。在十个多月的时间里，393名入住CCU的患者在签署知情同意书后，被随机分为代祷组（192例患者）和对照组（201例患者）。住院期间，第一组接受由参与其中的基督徒在医院外祈祷的代祷；对照组则没有。入院时，卡方检验和逐步逻辑分析显示两组之间无统计学差异。入院后，所有患者在剩余住院期间均接受随访。代祷组在入院后的病程中，基于病情严重程度评分显著更低（P小于0.01）。多变量分析根据结果变量将两组区分开来（P小于0.0001）。对照组患者比代祷组患者更频繁地需要通气辅助、抗生素和利尿剂。这些数据表明，向犹太 - 基督教的上帝进行代祷对入住CCU的患者具有有益的治疗效果。
