11 papers reviewed
Prayer, Spirituality & Contemplative Practice
2025 · systematic review · 1 of 11
Spirituality as a Coping Strategy for Infertility: a scoping review
— · Journal of Religion and Health
The strongest support for prayer in this context, and it is about coping rather than conception. Individuals and couples using spirituality as a coping strategy reported improved quality of life, increased hope, enhanced wellbeing and reduced emotional stressors while navigating infertility. Reviews of this literature note contradictory quality-of-life findings across studies, so the effect is real but not uniform.
Read the paper ↗2023 · systematic review · 2 of 11
Association of spiritual health with mental health status and quality of life among women with infertility: a systematic review
— · International Journal of Reproductive BioMedicine
Higher spiritual health was associated with lower stress, anxiety and depression among women with infertility. High religiosity and spirituality correlate with lower psychological distress in this population — an outcome that matters on its own terms given how heavy the emotional burden of infertility is.
Read the paper ↗2019 · cross-sectional · 3 of 11
Religious Women's Coping with Infertility: Do Culturally Adapted Religious Coping Strategies Contribute to Well-Being and Health?
— · International Journal of Behavioral Medicine
Identifies which specific religious coping strategies help: seeking the support of God, and seeking recognition and support within a faith community, both correlated with reduced psychological distress and enhanced wellbeing. Community and meaning-making appear to do much of the work, not petition alone.
Read the paper ↗2005 · review · 4 of 11
The stress and distress of infertility: does religion help women cope?
— · Journal of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation
Concludes clinicians should be prepared to discuss religious and spiritual issues with patients, since these may play a significant role in psychological health during infertility. Supports treating faith as a legitimate part of care rather than something to work around.
Read the paper ↗2024 · RCT · 5 of 11
Centering and flourishing: an online intervention study assessing the effects of a Christian contemplative practice on stress-reduction and human flourishing
— · BMC Psychology
Randomized trial of 702 participants testing Centering Prayer against a version stripped of religious framing and a simple reflection control — a rare design that isolates what the religious element adds. Directly relevant to positioning contemplative prayer alongside secular meditation in the toolkit.
Read the paper ↗2021 · RCT · 6 of 11
The Effectiveness of a Centering Meditation Intervention on College Stress and Mindfulness: A Randomized Controlled Trial
— · Frontiers in Psychology
Four weeks of centering meditation significantly increased mindfulness and decreased stress. Supports contemplative prayer practice operating through the same measurable pathway as the meditation and breathwork entries already in the app.
Read the paper ↗2021 · RCT · 7 of 11
Contemplative mental training reduces hair glucocorticoid levels in a randomized clinical trial
— · Psychosomatic Medicine / bioRxiv preprint
Contemplative training reduced hair glucocorticoid concentrations — a cumulative, months-long measure of cortisol exposure rather than a single timepoint. Provides a physiological mechanism (dampened HPA axis activity) shared across contemplative practices including prayer, meditation and breathwork.
Read the paper ↗2006 · RCT · 8 of 11
Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: a multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer
Benson H, Dusek JA, Sherwood JB et al. · American Heart Journal
The largest and most rigorous test of intercessory prayer — 1,802 cardiac bypass patients, prayer provided for 14 days by Christian prayer groups, three arms separating uncertainty from certainty about receiving prayer. Intercessory prayer did not reduce complications. Notably, patients who were certain they were receiving prayer had a higher complication rate, which the authors attributed to expectation or performance-anxiety effects rather than to prayer causing harm. This is the study that settled the question for most researchers.
Read the paper ↗2005 · RCT · 9 of 11
Music, imagery, touch, and prayer as adjuncts to interventional cardiac care: the Monitoring and Actualization of Noetic Trainings (MANTRA) II randomized study
Krucoff MW et al. · The Lancet
Multicentre 2x2 randomized trial in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. Neither intercessory prayer nor music/imagery/touch affected the primary composite endpoint of major cardiovascular events, death or readmission. Bedside music, imagery and touch did measurably reduce pre-procedural emotional distress — reinforcing that present, embodied practices help the person experiencing them, while distant intercession did not change outcomes.
Read the paper ↗2009 · Cochrane review · 10 of 11
Intercessory prayer for the alleviation of ill health (Cochrane systematic review)
Roberts L, Ahmed I, Davison A · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
Pooled analysis found no significant difference in general clinical state (5 RCTs, n=2,705, RR 0.98, 95% CI 0.86-1.11), no effect on coronary care readmission (4 RCTs, n=2,644) and none on rehospitalization (2 RCTs, n=1,155). Conclusion: evidence supports no recommendation either for or against intercessory prayer. IMPORTANT: the single positive IVF result cited in this review is the Cha/Wirth/Lobo study — see the following entry — and should be disregarded.
Read the paper ↗2004 · clinical commentary · 11 of 11
The Columbia University prayer-and-IVF study — research integrity failure (Cha, Wirth & Lobo 2001)
Flamm BL (critique); original: Cha KY, Wirth DP, Lobo RA · Journal of Reproductive Medicine (original); multiple critiques
The single most-cited claim that prayer improves fertility outcomes, and it should not be relied upon. The 2001 paper reported IVF pregnancy rates roughly doubled with intercessory prayer. Subsequently: co-author Daniel Wirth was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail and bank fraud in 2004; senior author Rogerio Lobo stated he had not participated in the research and removed his name; co-author Kwang Cha faced separate plagiarism allegations; participants were reportedly not informed they were enrolled, violating informed consent. The journal removed the paper from its website but never formally retracted it, so it continues to be cited — including within the Cochrane review above. Any content claiming prayer improves conception rates almost certainly traces back to this paper.
Read the paper ↗A paper's presence documents the evidence reviewed; it does not mean Filia endorses every intervention or conclusion.