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In October 1999, Harris et al¹ published the results of a randomized, controlled, double-blind study, which indicated that patients who were admitted to the coronary care unit of a major hospital and prayed for by external intercessors on a daily basis for 28 days experienced significantly fewer clinical events during their hospital stay (either weighted for severity [P=.04] or unweighted [P=.04]) than patients who were admitted to the same unit and not prayed for. There was no significant difference between the 2 groups with respect to length of hospital stay or length of stay in the coronary care unit.

We believe there is a serious flaw in this study in that patients were not randomly allocated to each group, but were allocated on a systematic basis according to whether the patient's medical record number was odd or even. This method of allocation was specified in the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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