There is a significant body of data of over fifty published clinical studies using good scientific techniques of placebo control, investigator blinding, and random selection which have demonstrated that religious faith evidenced by prayer may have quantifiable benefits above and beyond the advantages of social interaction and the establishment of relationships offered by regular church or synagogue attendance.248
One of the most significant controlled clinical studies on the positive therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer was carried out by Byrd in 1988.249 Three Hundred and ninety-three patients admitted to the coronary care unit at San Francisco General Hospital were randomly divided into two groups. In the first group, each patient's name, age, and general condition were recorded and given to prayer groups of devout Christians who agreed to pray for the patient's recovery. The second group was the control. The method of evaluation included the number of procedures, therapies delivered, over-all complications, and a global score of whether the hospitalization was beneficial to the patient. When the differences were submitted to multivariate analysis, the group who received prayer fared significantly better, and the statistical odds that this difference occurred by chance were one in 10,000.249
