Five-Minute Prayer Sessions Significantly Reduce Pain and Anxiety in Primary Care Patients, Study Finds
Key Insights
A randomized controlled trial of 180 primary care patients found that five-minute sessions of proximal intercessory prayer (search) significantly reduced both pain (search) and anxiety (search) compared to music control.
Prayer recipients showed greater pain (search) relief immediately and at two weeks, while anxiety (search) improvements persisted for at least six weeks after the intervention.
Black participants experienced particularly large improvements in both pain (search) and anxiety (search), with 97% of prayer recipients expressing willingness to have prayer available in future medical visits.
A randomized controlled trial conducted at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has demonstrated that a brief five-minute session of proximal intercessory prayer (search) (PIP) significantly reduced pain (search) and anxiety (search) in primary care patients compared to a music control group. The findings, published in the May/June 2026 issue of Annals of Family Medicine, represent one of the first well-powered randomized controlled trials of in-person intercessory prayer conducted in a standard primary care setting.
Study Design and Participants
Researchers enrolled 180 patients from a university family medicine practice who reported clinically significant pain (search) (scoring ≥4 on a 0-10 scale) or anxiety (search) as measured on the GAD-7 scale. After their medical appointments, participants were randomly assigned to receive either five minutes of Christian intercessory prayer from a trained volunteer - incorporating laying-on-of-hands - or five minutes of soft music as a control. Participants were followed up at two and six weeks.
The study population was predominantly Black, female, and low-income, reflective of the clinic's patient base. All participants provided informed consent, and the trial was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT07565142) with approval from the University of Maryland Baltimore Institutional Review Board.
Significant Pain and Anxiety Reductions
Both groups showed improvement, but prayer recipients demonstrated superior outcomes across multiple timepoints. For pain (search) management, prayer group participants reported significantly greater pain reductions immediately after the session and at the two-week follow-up compared to the music group. While the difference was not statistically significant at six weeks, the early benefits were substantial.
The anxiety (search) results proved even more compelling. Prayer group participants showed significantly greater reductions in anxiety scores immediately after their treatment, with this effect persisting at both two and six weeks, suggesting durable effects lasting at least a month and a half.
Particularly Strong Benefits for Black Participants
Black participants reported larger reductions in both pain (search) and anxiety (search) following prayer - a finding the authors consider particularly meaningful given documented inequities in pain treatment and the high rates of prayer use as complementary medicine among Black Americans. This differential response suggests potential clinical relevance for addressing healthcare disparities.
Safety Profile and Patient Acceptance
The intervention demonstrated an excellent safety profile with no participants reporting adverse events. Patient acceptance was remarkably high, with 97% of prayer recipients expressing they were neutral, agreeable, or strongly agreeable to having PIP available as part of future medical visits.
"Proximal intercessory prayer (search) was safe, effective, and well-received as complementary treatment for pain (search) and anxiety (search). It may be a low-cost, non-pharmacologic, effective adjunct to standard care with particular relevance for underserved populations," stated Katherine Jacobson, MD, Lead Author and Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Clinical Context and Implications
Prayer represents the most common form of complementary medicine in the United States, used by 43% of Americans with 62% of this group identifying as Christian. Despite this widespread use, rigorous clinical trials of in-person intercessory prayer have been scarce, making this study particularly significant for evidence-based practice.
Co-author Joshua W. Brown, PhD, Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University and Director and Co-founder of the Global Medical Research Institute (search), noted that "The prayer intervention was effective regardless of the patient's faith or no faith. Our findings add to research showing how prayer changes brain function in ways that promotes health."
Study Limitations and Future Directions
The researchers acknowledge several limitations. The study population's demographic composition limits broader generalizability. Additionally, because blinding participants or prayer practitioners is not possible without undermining the ecological validity of the intervention, placebo effects and non-specific factors such as human presence and touch cannot be fully ruled out.
The authors suggest that future studies should include a control condition with interpersonal contact and touch but without prayer, to better isolate PIP's specific effects. This would help distinguish between the specific effects of prayer versus general benefits of human interaction and physical contact.
The research was funded by a Global Medical Research Institute (search) MESH Grant and conducted by researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Indiana University, and the Global Medical Research Institute.