A Randomized Double-Blind Study of the Effect of Distant Healing in a Population With Advanced AIDS: Report of a Small Scale Study
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Plain English Summary
Can sending healing thoughts to someone from far away actually help them get better? This 1998 study tackled that bold question with advanced AIDS patients — people who were seriously ill with very low immune cell counts. Forty patients were carefully paired up based on age, immune health, and specific illnesses, then randomly split into two groups. One group received distant healing from 40 different practitioners spanning various spiritual traditions over ten weeks, while the other group got no such treatment. Crucially, nobody — not the patients, not the doctors — knew who was in which group. The results were genuinely surprising: the healing group developed dramatically fewer new serious illnesses, had less severe symptoms, needed fewer doctor visits, spent less time in the hospital, and even reported better moods. A combined statistical test across all eleven health measures came back significant. These are eye-catching numbers from a well-structured trial. However, there are real caveats worth noting. With only 40 patients total, this is a small study where a few unusual cases could swing the results. The researchers also looked at many different outcomes, which raises the statistical concern that some "hits" might be due to chance alone. The findings also proved sensitive to how the researchers accounted for initial health differences between groups. This study became one of three landmark trials in the distant healing debate, and while supporters point to the rigorous blinding, skeptics emphasize the small size and multiple-comparison issues as reasons to interpret the results cautiously.
Actual Paper Abstract
Various forms of distant healing (DH), including prayer and "psychic healing," are widely practiced, but insufficient formal research has been done to indicate whether such efforts actually affect health. We report on a double-blind randomized trial of DH in 40 patients with advanced AIDS. Subjects were pair-matched for age, CD4+ count, and number of AIDS-defining illnesses and randomly selected to either 10 weeks of DH treatment or a control group. DH treatment was performed by self-identified healers representing many different healing and spiritual traditions. Healers were located throughout the United States during the study, and subjects and healers never met. Subjects were assessed by psychometric testing and blood draw at enrollment and followed for 6 months. At 6 months, a blind medical chart review found that treatment subjects acquired significantly fewer new AIDS-defining illnesses (0.1 versus 0.6 per patient, P = 0.04), had lower illness severity (severity score 0.8 versus 2.65, P = 0.03), and required significantly fewer doctor visits (9.2 versus 13.0, P = 0.01), fewer hospitalizations (0.15 versus 0.6, P= 0.04), and fewer days of hospitalization (0.5 versus 3.4, P= 0.04). Treated subjects also showed significantly improved mood compared with controls (Profile of Mood States score -26 versus 14, P= 0.02). There were no significant differences in CD4+ counts. These data support the possibility of a DH effect in AIDS and suggest the value of further research. (Sicher F, Targ E, Moore D, Smith HS. A randomized double-blind study of the effect of distant healing in a population with advanced AIDS-report of a small scale study. West J Med 1998; 169:356-363)
Research Notes
One of the trio of landmark intercessory/distant healing RCTs (with Byrd 1988 and Harris 1999) central to the Controversy #5 debate. Notable for its rigorous double-blind design and diverse healer traditions, but frequently critiqued for small sample size (N=40), multiple comparisons, and sensitivity of results to baseline covariate adjustments.
Forty patients with advanced AIDS (CDC category C-3, CD4+ < 200) were pair-matched for age, CD4+ count, and AIDS-defining illnesses, then randomized to receive 10 weeks of distant healing from 40 rotating practitioners or a control condition. In this double-blind trial, treatment subjects acquired significantly fewer new AIDS-defining illnesses (0.1 vs 0.6, P=0.04), had lower illness severity (BHS score 0.80 vs 2.65, P=0.03), required fewer doctor visits (9.2 vs 13.0, P=0.01), and had fewer hospitalizations (0.15 vs 0.6, P=0.04). Mood improved significantly in the treatment group (POMS P=0.02). A multivariate randomization test across all 11 outcomes was significant (P=0.0154). The authors conclude these data support a possible distant healing effect in AIDS.
Related Papers
Cited By
- Intercessory Prayer for the Alleviation of Ill Health — Roberts, Leanne (2009)
- The Efficacy of "Distant Healing": A Systematic Review of Randomized Trials — Astin, John A (2000)
- Two Meta-Analyses of Noncontact Healing Studies — Roe, Chris A (2015)
- Can We Help Just by Good Intentions? A Meta-Analysis of Experiments on Distant Intention Effects — Schmidt, Stefan (2012)
- 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 — Benson, Herbert (2006)
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📋 Cite this paper
Sicher, Fred, Targ, Elisabeth, Moore, Dan II, Smith, Helene S (1998). A Randomized Double-Blind Study of the Effect of Distant Healing in a Population With Advanced AIDS: Report of a Small Scale Study. Western Journal of Medicine.
@article{sicher_1998_distant_healing,
title = {A Randomized Double-Blind Study of the Effect of Distant Healing in a Population With Advanced AIDS: Report of a Small Scale Study},
author = {Sicher, Fred and Targ, Elisabeth and Moore, Dan II and Smith, Helene S},
year = {1998},
journal = {Western Journal of Medicine},
}