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The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7188 p325-328
9 March 2002

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Spiritual healing

Placebo effect comes with all types of healing

From Professor E. Ernst, FRCP

In writing about spiritual healing (PJ, 23 February, p242), Michael Bland asks "how does it work?". This elegantly bypasses the question "does it work?". So, what about some evidence. Our systematic review of all rigorous clinical trials on this subject¹ showed that about 50 per cent of them arrived at a positive conclusion. At least in part, this could be because of publication bias, ie, the tendency for "negative" trials to remain unpublished. Our own randomised clinical trial showed clearly that spiritual healing has a powerful placebo effect but not more.² "What is wrong with placebo?", Mr Bland asks. Here I agree with him — placebo effects should be used for the best benefit of the patient. But do we really need to believe in spiritual healing for this? I think not, and I rather advocate researching the placebo response more systematically with a view to helping patients to benefit from it — not just those who see a spiritual healer. After all, the placebo effect comes with all types of treatments — even with those that are more than placebos.

Edzard Ernst
Department of Complementary Medicine,
University of Exeter

References

1. Astin JA, Harkness EF, Ernst E. The efficacy of "Distant Healing": a systematic review of randomized trials. Ann Intern Med 2000;132: 903–10.

2. Abbot NC, Harkness EF, Stevinson C, Marshall FP, Conn DA, Ernst E. Spiritual healing as a therapy for chronic pain: a randomized, clinical trial. Pain 2001;91: 79–89.

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