Objective(s): Intercessory prayer (IP) is one of the newly recognized holistic treatment methods and its effectiveness has been documented on the management of different diseases such as coronary heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and infertility. This study aims to determine its effectiveness on ferritin and blood indices of major thalassemic patients.Methods: This was an interventional study assessing seven patients attending an outpatient clinic receiving IP in addition to their routine treatment.Results: In all IP was performed 5.86 times for each patient as close-laying of hands and 6 times as remote IP. Before the study, the mean hemoglobin was 9.7 mg/dl, which increased to 10.8 afterwards (P=0.028). Mean serum ferritin was 2246.8 before the intervention which decreased to 1680.8 afterwards. Blood transfusion interval doubled in four patients. Dizziness and fatigue, which were reported by two patients before intervention, disappeared afterwards. Three patients reported an improvement in their school performance after the study.Conclusion: This pilot study showed that intercessory prayer was effective in increasing hemoglobin and transfusion interval, decreasing ferritin and improving school performance in patients with major thalassemia. A larger randomized trial is suggested to confirm the results.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common neurological disorders worldwide, afflicting more than one million people. This chronic and debilitating condition usually starts from young ages and does not have any curative treatments. Intercessory prayer is one of the methods of complementary medicine which have shown effectiveness in improving the heath state in different conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or even infertility. We aim to study the effects of intercessory prayer on quality of life of MS patients.In Iranian tradional medicine doctors were called Hakim.In addition to providing patients with conventional treatment, Hakim held or moved his hands over the head of their patients while he was praying for patients health. This before-after study was performed on 12 MS patients admitted to a health care clinic. The patients were told about the method of intervention and filled in the consent form. Weekly sessions Hands-on prayer and remote intercessory prayer was performed for 8 weeks. Quality of life was measured before and after the trial with Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life (MSQOL-54) instrument. Pain was one of the sub-scales of physical health composite Wilcoxon signed ranks test through SPSS version 10 was used for non-parametric statistical analysis. The trained physicians treated patients with Intercessery prayer free of charge. Lack of financial support prohibited research on larger sample size. Each patient received 7 times of hands-on and 14 times of remote intercessory prayer. The patients showed a significant improvement in the area of physical health, energy, and physical health composite (P=0.04, P=0.02 and P=0.02 respectively). All of them also announced subjective improvement in their motivation and mood. This study shows the effectiveness of intercessory prayer on some aspects of quality of life in the patients with disease as multiple sclerosis. Controlled studies with larger sample sizes and longer intervention and follow-up period are recommended to support this effect. One of the great masters in the medicine and healing art indicate that the beneficial effects of Intercessory prayer on healing are so convincing that it is not justifiable to deprive patients.

Intercessory prayer (IP) is one of the newly re-cognized holistic treatment methods and its effectiveness has been documented on the management of different disease such as CHD, RA, and infertility. This study aims to determine its effect on ferritin and blood indices of thalassemic major patients. In Iranian tradional medicine doctors were called Hakim. In addition to providing patients with conventional treatment, Hakim held or moved his hands over the head of their patients while he was praying for patients health. This before-after study was conducted on seven patients who were visited at an outpatient clinic and had received IP in addition to their routine treatment. SPSS version 10 was used for statistical analysis. The trained physicians treated patients with Intercessery prayer free of charge. Lack of financial support prohibited research on larger sample size. 85.6% of patients were female and mean age was 14. In average, IP was performed 5.86 times for each patient as close-laying of hands and 6 times as remote IP. Before the study, the mean hemoglobin was 9.7 mg/dl, which reached 10.8 afterwards (p=0.028) (Wilcoxon signed ranks test). Mean serum ferritin was 2246.8 before the intervention which decreased to 1680.8 afterwards. Meanwhile, one of the patients had nearly halved the frequency and dose of desferral injections on her own. Ignoring this case, mean serum ferritin after intervention would decrease to 1476.5. Blood transfusion interval doubled in four patients. Dizziness and fatigue, which were reported by two patients before intervention, disappeared afterwards. Three patients reported an improvement in their school performance after the study. This study shows the effectiveness of Intercersory prayer in increasing hemoglobin and transfusion interval, decreasing ferritin and improving school performance in patients with major thalassemia. Blinded trials with larger sample sizes are suggested for more elaboration on this obvious effect. One of the great masters in the medicine and healing art indicate that the beneficial effects of Intercessory prayer on healing are so convincing that it is not Justifiable to deprive patients

Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common entrapment neuropathy with annual cost of about one billion. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of intercessory prayer in the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome.Methods and materials: In this cross sectional interventional study, patients with electrophysiologically- confirmed diagnosis of CTS had inclusion criteria during 2005 autumn underwent intercessory praying. They were evaluated for subjective symptoms with (VAS 10cm), objective signs and electrodiagnostic parameters before and 6 weeks after a three-week intercessory praying.Results: 12 patients with 23 hands were enrolled. At 6 weeks after the end of the therapy, subjective symptoms, phalen, reverse phalen and electro diagnostic findings (Median DSL & DML) showed significant changes. (Cl 95%, P< 0.05). Tinel test and Flick Sign, had no statistically significant changes (P >0.05). About 47/8 % of cases cured completely and the others changed so much; however; there were no statistically significant changes in CTS grades in Chi square test. It May be due to the patients low count. 74.99% of patients were satisfied or highly satisfied with the therapy. Conclusion: We recommended that intercessory praying (IP) should be considered as a cost - effective, non invasive, low side effect treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome. It deserves to be studied more with enough patient sampling.

Objective (s): Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common entrapment neuropathy with annual cost of about one billion. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of intercessory prayer in the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome.Methods: In this cross sectional interventional study, patients with Electro physiological confirmed diagnosis of CTS with inclusion criteria’s during autumn 2005 underwent intercessory prayer. They were evaluated for subjective symptoms with (VAS 10mm), objective signs and electro diagnostic parameters before and 6 weeks after a three-week intercessory prayer.Results: 12 patients with 23 hands were enrolled. At 6 weeks after the end of therapy, subjective symptoms, phalen, reverse phalen and Electro diagnostic findings (Median DSL &DML) show significant changes (CI 95% p valve<0.05). In tinel test, and Flick Sign, there were no significant changes (p value>0.05). About 47.8 % of cases cured completely and other changes (p value>0.05). Changed so much but there were no significant changes in CTS grades in Chi square test, it may be due to the patients’ low count. 74.99% of patients were satisfied or highly satisfied with the therapy.Conclusion: We recommended that intercessory prayer (IP) should be considered in the employed as a cost-effective, non-invasive, low side effect treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome. It deserves to be studied more with enough patient sampling. 

Background and Objective: Prayer is one of the most common complementary approaches throughout the world and is highly valued in traditional Islamic medicine in Iran. The aim of this study was to explore the views and practices of physicians on using prayer in the clinical practice, in Tehran, Iran.Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional study in the year 2008, a convenience sample of 131 physicians was included in this survey. Data were collected using a structured self-administered questionnaire. SPSS was used to analyze the data. Results: Of participants, 52.7 percent were male with the mean age of 38.4±9 years. About 94.5 percent of physicians said that at times they themselves prayed for their patients. About 31.3% said that their patients "often" requested them to pray for them and 58.8% said they have “occasionally” been asked. About 7.1 percent asserted that they believed prayer could not improve the medical condition of the patients. Moreover, only 2.5 percent said they were taught to pray for health improvement through educational courses.Conclusion: The majority of surveyed physicians would pray for their patients and frequently, the patients had asked them to do so. Developing practical approaches to incorporate prayer into medical practice should be paid attention to. A structured and systematic program based on the results of this study and related investigations can lead to scientific re-introduction of this aspect of Islamic and traditional practice in health promotion.

Intercession is one of exegetic-theological issues raised among Islamic thinkers through the verses of the Quran. Intercessory issues can be divided into two general categories as those who intercede and those who are interceded. ‘ Ashari and Mo’ tazila theologies regard Prophet Muhammad as an intercessor, yet have not commented anything special about other intercessors. In contrast, Mulla Sadra regards pioneer creatures in the curve of descent (Rational Abstracts) and those in the curve of ascent (Complete Humans) as intercessors and leaders for the rest of humans in their path to God because of being mediators to receive grace. The Prophet of Islam initiates intercession due to his comprehensive features. Mo’ tazila holds that intercession would increase the blessing of Muminin in paradise and ‘ Asharism holds that it would also decrease the punishment of fasiqin (violators) and cruel people. Criticizing Mo’ tazila theology, Mulla Sadra regards intercession as also effective in reducing the punishment of those doomed to hell; of course just in case their vicious acts are not dominant.