Healing Effect of Intercession Prayer in Stroke Patients

The present study was undertaken to assess the healing effect of intercessory prayer (IP) in stroke patients. Patients from stroke ICU were taken for the study by random selection. Patients were grouped into case and control. Intercessory prayer offered for the case group by the investigator for an hour in the evening from the day of admission to one week. Both the control and case group were analyzed by using data from the medical records. The present study results showed healing effect on patients who received intercessory prayer. The stroke patients who received prayer showed less complications while staying in the hospital and number of days were also less. Nonverbal pain score have low score for the case group (prayer received group) comparing with the control group. Mortality rate was comparatively less for the case group. Our study provides preliminary evidence for positive healing effect of intercessory prayer (IP) for stroke patients. Further detailed studies with more parameters and with higher sample size is recommended for more evidence and suggests that prayer may be an effective adjunct to standard medical care.