title: Divine intervention? A Cochrane review on intercessory prayer gone beyond science and reason.
abstract: We discuss in this commentary a recent Cochrane review of 10 randomised trials aimed at testing the religious belief that praying to a god can help those who are prayed for. The review concluded that the available studies merit additional research. However, the review presented a scientifically unsound mixture of theological and scientific arguments, and two of the included trials that had a large impact on the findings had problems that were not described in the review. The review fails to live up to the high standards required for Cochrane reviews.
authors.affiliation: Dept 3343, The Nordic Cochrane Centre, Rigshospitalet, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. kj@cochrane.dk
authors.forename: Karsten Juhl
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Jørgensen
authors.forename: Asbjørn
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hróbjartsson
authors.forename: Peter C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Gøtzsche
mesh_terms: D029221:Faith Healing / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D012586:Science / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends