Psychological, Neurological and Immunological Changes Following a Meeting With a Chaplain Coupled With Biblical Readings

NCT ID: NCT04112121

Last Updated: 2019-10-15

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 57 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2015-09-10
• Study Completion Date: 2017-01-02

Brief Summary

The aim of the "HEALING" " (Hospital-based Ecumenical And Linguistic Immuno-NeuroloGic) Study was to examine immunological and neurological changes in hospitalized participants after meeting a chaplain and Biblical listenings, in order to evaluate whether these meetings affect the course of the disease.

Detailed Description

The authors pre-screened hospitalized participants to find those who were the most in need of an intervention by a chaplain. A passage from the Bible was read to the participants during a meeting with the chaplain at the bedside, or in the chapel of the hospital. No meeting occurred in the randomized control group, which was compiled in a way to get a group of participants with an approximatively similar pattern of diagnoses and treatment days than the intervention groups. The pace of enrollment was deliberately slow in order to assure the authenticity of the visits ("slow science"). Blood samples were taken 30 minutes prior, and 60 minutes after the meeting to measure White Blood Cell (WBC)-, lymphocyte counts, interferon gamma (IFN-γ)-, immunoglobulin M (IgM)-, immunoglobulin A (IgA)-, immunoglobulin G (IgG)-, and complement C3 levels. A subgroup of the visited participants was subjected to functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), where they were played an audiotape of readings of the same passage from the Bible. Associative tests, paired-samples t-test, network analysis was performed to search for any correlation between psychological and immunological parameters, completed with Statistical Parametric Mapping to search for correlations of the above with neurological parameters.

Conditions

Hospitalism

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Patients Meeting the Chaplain at the Bedside

First meeting with the chaplain, coupled with biblical readings at the bedside.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Meeting with a Chaplain coupled with Biblical Readings

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Patients Meeting the Chaplain at the Chapel

First meeting with the chaplain, coupled with biblical readings at the hospital's chapel

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Meeting with a Chaplain coupled with Biblical Readings

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Patients Not Meeting the Chaplain

In the control group we enrolled patients whose diagnoses and number of days in the hospital was similar to the intervention groups (covariate-adaptive, blocked, stratified randomization method).

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Meeting with a Chaplain coupled with Biblical Readings

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• adult age (>18 years)
• the condition of being hospitalized
• the ability for verbal communication
• alertness, orientation
• no sign of psychosis in their medical history
• willingness to participate in the study after written, informed consent

Exclusion Criteria

• the inability to communicate verbally
• psychotic state, altered mental state
• unwillingness to participate
• active and treated malignant disease
• steroid, NSAID or metamizole- sodium use

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Somogy Megyei Kaposi Mór Teaching Hospital

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Dr. András Béres

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

András Béres, M.D.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Physician

Locations

Somogy Megyei Kaposi Mór Teaching Hospital

Kaposvár, , Hungary

Countries

Hungary

References

Beres A, Emri M, Aranyi C, Fajtai D, Nagy F, Szabo P, Bodecs P, Horcsik E, Perpekne Papp E, Tomanek F, Kuti M, Petofalvine A, Kisdeakne H, Biro G, Kovacs D, Bakos B, Vinczen E, Gal E, Sillinger R, Szalai Z, Szilagyi A, Kiss-Merki M, Nagyeri G, Fodor J, Nemeth T, Papp E, Repa I. Healing through faith: Meeting a chaplain coupled with biblical readings could produce lymphocyte changes that correlate with brain activity (HEALING study). F1000Res. 2024 Oct 30;10:1295. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.74504.5. eCollection 2021.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 40496603 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

HEALING STUDY IG/3355/2013

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id