Regular Article

Effectiveness of Distant Healing for Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Randomised Controlled Partially Blinded Trial (EUHEALS)
Harald Walach^{a, d}, Holger Bösch^d, George Lewith^b, Johannes Naumann^d, Barbara Schwarzer^d, Sonja Falk^d, Niko Kohls^a, Erlendur Haraldsson^f, Harald Wiesendanger^e, Alain Nordmann^h, Helgi Tomasson^g, Phil Prescott^c, Heiner C. Bucher<sup>h

a</sup>Samueli Institute, European Office, School of Social Sciences, University of Northampton, Northampton, Departments of
^bGeneral Practice, and
^cStatistics, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK;
^dCAM Outpatients Department, University Hospital Freiburg, Institute of Environmental Medicine and Hospital Epidemiology, Freiburg,
^ePrivate Practice, Schönbrunn, Germany;
^fDepartment of Social Sciences, and
^gFaculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland;
^hBasel Institute for Clinical Epidemiology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Address of Corresponding Author

Psychother Psychosom 2008;77:158-166 (DOI: 10.1159/000116609)

  Key Words

• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Distant healing
• Complementary and alternative medicine

  Abstract

Background: Distant healing, a form of spiritual healing, is widely used for many conditions but little is known about its effectiveness. Methods: In order to evaluate distant healing in patients with a stable chronic condition, we randomised 409 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) from 14 private practices for environmental medicine in Germany and Austria in a two by two factorial design to immediate versus deferred (waiting for 6 months) distant healing. Half the patients were blinded and half knew their treatment allocation. Patients were treated for 6 months and allocated to groups of 3 healers from a pool of 462 healers in 21 European countries with different healing traditions. Change in Mental Health Component Summary (MHCS) score (SF-36) was the primary outcome and Physical Health Component Summary score (PHCS) the secondary outcome. Results: This trial population had very low quality of life and symptom scores at entry. There were no differences over 6 months in post-treatment MHCS scores between the treated and untreated groups. There was a non-significant outcome (p = 0.11) for healing with PHCS (1.11; 95% CI -0.255 to 2.473 at 6 months) and a significant effect (p = 0.027) for blinding; patients who were unblinded became worse during the trial (-1.544; 95% CI -2.913 to -0.176). We found no relevant interaction for blinding among treated patients in MHCS and PHCS. Expectation of treatment and duration of CFS added significantly to the model. Conclusions: In patients with CFS, distant healing appears to have no statistically significant effect on mental and physical health but the expectation of improvement did improve outcome.

Copyright © 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel

  Author Contacts

Harald Walach, PhD
School of Social Sciences and Samueli Institute for Information Biology
University of Northampton, Boughton Green Road
Northampton NN2 7AL (UK)
Tel. +44 1604 892 952, Fax +44 1604 722 067, E-Mail harald.walach@northampton.ac.uk

  Article Information

Published online: February 14, 2008
Number of Print Pages : 9
Number of Figures : 2, Number of Tables : 3, Number of References : 39