Spiritual healing as a therapy for chronic pain: a randomized, clinical trial

Spiritual healing is a popular complementary and alternative therapy; in th e UK almost 13 000 members are registered in nine separate healing organisa tions. The present randomized clinical trial was designed to investigate th e efficacy of healing in the treatment of chronic pain. One hundred and twe nty patients suffering from chronic pain, predominantly of neuropathic and nociceptive origin resistant to conventional treatments, were recruited fro m a Pain Management Clinic. The trial had two parts: face-to-face healing o r simulated face-to-face healing fur 30 min per week for 8 weeks (part I); and distant healing or no healing for 30 min per week for 8 weeks (part II) . The McGill Pain Questionnaire was pre-defined as the primary outcome meas ure, and sample size was calculated to detect a difference of 8 units on th e total pain rating index of this instrument after 8 weeks of healing. VASs for pain, SF36, HAD scale, MYMOP and patient subjective experiences at wee k 8 were employed as secondary outcome measures. Data from all patients who reached the pre-defined mid-point of 4 weeks (50 subjects in part I and 55 subjects in part II) were included in the analysis. Two baseline measureme nts of outcome measures were made, 3 weeks apart, and no significant differ ences were observed between them. After eight sessions there were significa nt decreases from baseline in McGill Pain Questionnaire total pain raring i ndex score for both groups in part I and for the control group in part II. However, there were no statistically significant differences between healin g and control groups in either part. In part I the primary outcome measure decreased from 32.8 (95% CI 28.5-37.0) to 23.3 (16.8-29.7) in the healing g roup and from 33.1 (27.2-38.9) to 26.1 (19.3-32.9) in the simulated healing group. In part II it changed from 29.6 (24.8-34.4) to 24.0 (18.7-29.4) in the distant healing group and from 31.0 (25.8-36.2) to 21.0 (15.7-26.2) in the no healing group. Subjects in healing groups in both parts I and II rep orted significantly more 'unusual experiences' during the sessions, but the clinical relevance of this is unclear. It was concluded that a specific ef fect of face-to-face or distant healing on chronic pain could not be demons trated over eight treatment sessions in these patients. (C) 2001 Internatio nal Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. A ll rights reserved.