title: It's good to know: how treatment knowledge and belief affect the outcome of distant healing intentionality for arthritis sufferers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This small-scale study explores the role of expectancy in response to distant healing by testing two hypotheses: 1) Participants aware of placement in the healing condition will report greater relief than those aware they are not receiving distant healing; 2) Participants who express belief in distant healing will report greater relief than those expressing disbelief.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty patients were recruited from a rheumatology outpatient clinic, and through online support networks and blogs. Participants were randomly allocated to one of four conditions, those in the healing condition received distant healing from self-reported healers, while participants in the control condition received no intervention. Half of the participants knew their treatment allocation and half were blinded. The primary outcome measures were the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and the Short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire. The Paranormal Belief Scale and a measure designed to assess belief in distant healing were given to determine if belief was correlated with healing outcomes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Awareness of being a recipient of distant healing appeared to be associated with improved outcomes for those in the healing group. Medium to large improvements in GHQ scores (d=.76) and McGill Pain scores (d=.45) were calculated for the groups aware of their condition. Participants unaware that they were receiving healing showed no evidence of improved outcomes. Belief in healing did not have an effect on self-reported outcomes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Improvements in reported pain and well-being appear to have been caused by knowledge of allocation in the distant healing condition rather than distant healing alone.
authors.affiliation: University of Edinburgh, Department of Psychology, 7 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK. alisoneaster@gmail.com
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Easter
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Watt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000628:therapy*; D001364:Awareness; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008602:Mental Healing; D008875:Middle Aged; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome