DURHAM, N.C., July 26 (UPI) -- A North Carolina study finds that prayer had no significant effect on the outcome of heart surgery.
The researchers also examined the effect of MIT therapy, a technique of touching patients. They found patients given MIT therapy had somewhat less emotional distress before surgery and a slightly lower mortality rate six months later, the New York Times reports.
The team headed by Dr. Mitchell Krucoff, a professor of medicine at Duke University, tracked 737 patients undergoing cardiac procedures. Half the patients were assigned to be prayed for and half not, and half to be given MIT therapy.
Krucoff and his colleagues found prayer, MIT therapy or a combination did not reduce deaths in the hospital, surgical complications or hospital readmissions.
"The most important point may be that this is an exploration coming from the mainstream, not the fringes, of modern medicine," Krucoff told the Times. "What we're trying to do is figure out how important it may be to better integrate intangible human capacities into high-tech health care."
The results were published in the British medical journal, The Lancet.
