The idea of even being studies is crazy itself, should never be studied. No point. Any "study" showing power of prayer either good or bad would have to be severely flawed.
This was my post on page 3 (the paragraph below). I do believe prayer works, but not for the reason theists believe. I believe it acts as a form of social support, which is fundamental for people with medical problems. In terms of social support, the literature has consistently linked social support with a whole host of positive outcomes when it comes to medically ill patients. Hope this makes sense.
There is a difference. Did prayer make them feel better and aid them in recovery? Sure, I can agree that prayer makes people feel better and aids in recovery. But so do a lot of other things such as meditation, mindfulness, deep breathing, etc. The fact that prayer makes people feel better and helps them with recovery is no surprise. Knowing that someone is praying for you is a form of social support. Research has also shown that women with breast cancer, who attend support groups, on average, live 2 years longer compared to those women who do not attend support groups. Thus, the fact that you know someone is praying for you is a form of social support, and social support is needed when medically ill.
The real question is can prayer cure incurable diseases, which has been a claimed many times. Studies have shown that when people pray for people who have incurable diseases, there are no effects in terms of the illness magically disappearing. Plain and simple, prayer does not work when you take chance out of the equation. The fact of the matter is that when people choose prayer over medicine, especially when it comes to diseases, guess what? They die! Prayer does not work when it comes to curing people. It may aid in recovery, but that is much different than curing something with only prayer.
