Expectations contribute to reduced pain levels during prayer in highly religious participants
Expectations contribute to reduced pain levels during prayer in highly religious participants
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DOI：
10.1007/s10865-012-9438-9
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发表时间：
2013-08-01
影响因子：
3.1
通讯作者：
Jensen, Troels Staehelin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Jegindo, Else-Marie Elmholdt;Vase, Lene;Jensen, Troels Staehelin
虽然使用祈祷作为一种宗教应对策略是普遍的，往往声称对身体疾病，包括疼痛有积极的影响，它从来没有在一个受控的实验环境中测试祈祷是否有缓解疼痛的效果。宗教信仰和实践是复杂的现象，祈祷的使用可能会受到与疼痛体验相关的一般心理因素的影响，例如期望，缓解疼痛的愿望和焦虑。20名宗教和20名非宗教健康志愿者在向上帝祈祷的过程中受到痛苦的电刺激，世俗的对比条件和疼痛控制条件。受试者在每次试验前对预期的疼痛强度水平、疼痛缓解愿望和焦虑进行评分，并在机械视觉模拟量表上立即对疼痛强度和疼痛不愉快进行评分。自主神经和心血管的措施提供了连续的非侵入性的客观手段，评估潜在的镇痛效果的祈祷。祈祷减少了34%的疼痛强度和38%的痛苦不愉快的宗教参与者，但不为非宗教参与者。对于有宗教信仰的参与者，预期和欲望预测了56- 64%的疼痛强度评分方差，但对于无宗教信仰的参与者，只有预期对疼痛强度有显著预测作用（65- 73%）。相反，祈祷引起的疼痛强度和疼痛不愉快的减少并没有随之而来的自主神经和心血管的变化。
Although the use of prayer as a religious coping strategy is widespread and often claimed to have positive effects on physical disorders including pain, it has never been tested in a controlled experimental setting whether prayer has a pain relieving effect. Religious beliefs and practices are complex phenomena and the use of prayer may be mediated by general psychological factors known to be related to the pain experience, such as expectations, desire for pain relief, and anxiety. Twenty religious and twenty non-religious healthy volunteers were exposed to painful electrical stimulation during internal prayer to God, a secular contrast condition, and a pain-only control condition. Subjects rated expected pain intensity levels, desire for pain relief, and anxiety before each trial and pain intensity and pain unpleasantness immediately after on mechanical visual analogue scales. Autonomic and cardiovascular measures provided continuous non-invasive objective means for assessing the potential analgesic effects of prayer. Prayer reduced pain intensity by 34 % and pain unpleasantness by 38 % for religious participants, but not for non-religious participants. For religious participants, expectancy and desire predicted 56-64 % of the variance in pain intensity scores, but for non-religious participants, only expectancy was significantly predictive of pain intensity (65-73 %). Conversely, prayer-induced reduction in pain intensity and pain unpleasantness were not followed by autonomic and cardiovascular changes.