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Efficacy of Distant Healing in Glioblastoma Treatment

Study Purpose

This study will assess whether distant healing effects survival time and loss of function for glioblastoma patients.

Recruitment Criteria

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Healthy volunteers are participants who do not have a disease or condition, or related conditions or symptoms

No
Study Type

An interventional clinical study is where participants are assigned to receive one or more interventions (or no intervention) so that researchers can evaluate the effects of the interventions on biomedical or health-related outcomes.


An observational clinical study is where participants identified as belonging to study groups are assessed for biomedical or health outcomes.


Searching Both is inclusive of interventional and observational studies.

Interventional
Eligible Ages 18 Years - 75 Years
Gender All
More Inclusion & Exclusion Criteria

Inclusion:

  • - Histologically confirmed diagnosis of glioblastoma based on open resection.
  • - Patient is within five weeks of diagnosis confirmed by pathology report.
Exclusion:
  • - Non-English speaking.
  • - Inability or unwillingness to fill out questionnaires.
  • - History of other cancers within the last 2 years (except superficial basal cell, squamous cell carcinoma of the skin), or other concurrent life-threatening conditions.

Trial Details

Trial ID:

This trial id was obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, providing information on publicly and privately supported clinical studies of human participants with locations in all 50 States and in 196 countries.

NCT00029783
Phase

Phase 1: Studies that emphasize safety and how the drug is metabolized and excreted in humans.

Phase 2: Studies that gather preliminary data on effectiveness (whether the drug works in people who have a certain disease or condition) and additional safety data.

Phase 3: Studies that gather more information about safety and effectiveness by studying different populations and different dosages and by using the drug in combination with other drugs.

Phase 4: Studies occurring after FDA has approved a drug for marketing, efficacy, or optimal use.

Phase 2
Lead Sponsor

The sponsor is the organization or person who oversees the clinical study and is responsible for analyzing the study data.

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
Principal Investigator

The person who is responsible for the scientific and technical direction of the entire clinical study.

Andrew Freinkel, MD
Principal Investigator Affiliation California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute
Agency Class

Category of organization(s) involved as sponsor (and collaborator) supporting the trial.

NIH
Overall Status Completed
Countries United States
Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied.

Glioblastoma
Additional Details

Prayer, energy healing, and spiritual healing are widely used for all degrees of illness. Eisenberg (1998) reported that more that 26% of his survey sample used "energy healing" within the last year. Most of these practitioners believe that their inner intentions result in the benefits, either through the agency of love, energy, or a Higher Power (Benor 1992). However, the conventional community attributes benefits from these interventions to the patient's hope, expectation, or experience of support from a practitioner (Benson 1996). The proposed study is a double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial of "distant healing intentionality." Distant Healing (DH) is defined as a "mental intention on behalf of one person, to benefit another at a distance." This study will assess whether DH effects survival time and loss of function for glioblastoma patients under conditions where hope and expectation are controlled. The study will include approximately 150 patients who have rapidly progressing glioblastoma and are beginning radiotherapy. Patients will be photographed and assessed for quality of life, psychological status, and physical symptoms as well as health habits and attitude toward DH. After stratification by age and functional status (Karnofsky score), patients will be randomly assigned to either standard treatment with or without DH. Healers from diverse schools and backgrounds from communities across the United States will be assigned to patients by rotation, so that each patient in the DH group will be treated for two weeks by 10 different healers over the 20 week intervention. Experienced healers will have photographs of subjects and send "mental intention for health and well being" to subjects for one hour daily, three times per week. The healing intervention will be performed at a distance, and patients and healers will never meet, nor will patients know their group assignment. The study findings will provide the basis for developing a larger study, definitive trial.

Contact a Trial Team

If you are interested in learning more about this trial, find the trial site nearest to your location and contact the site coordinator via email or phone. We also strongly recommend that you consult with your healthcare provider about the trials that may interest you and refer to our terms of service below.

San Francisco, California

Status

Address

California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute

San Francisco, California, 94115