Spiritual Healing in the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis: An Exploratory Single Centre, Parallel-Group, Double-Blind, Three-Arm, Randomised, Sham-Controlled Trial
Table 1
Baseline characteristics of the intention-to-treat population.
Active Healing
Sham Healing
No Healing
Age (years), mean (SD)
32
60.6 (10.7)
32
58.2 (12.6)
32
58.4 (13.9)
Current/previous use of biologics, number (%)
32
5 (16%)
32
6 (19%)
32
7 (22%)
No use of DMARD*/corticosteroid
32
6 (19%)
32
6 (19%)
32
5 (16%)
Disease duration >3 yrs, no. (%)
32
20 (63%)
32
20 (63%)
32
25 (78%)
Disease activity score (28 joints), mean (SD)
32
3.55 (1.28)
32
3.65 (0.94)
32
3.78 (1.64)
Doppler ultrasound (colour fraction: 0-1)
31
0.059 [0.040; 0.198]
30
0.064 [0.029; 0.203]
31
0.076 [0.025; 0.184]
Rheumatoid factor, IU
32
25 [8; 145]
32
27 [10; 227]
32
14 [8; 79]
Erythrocyte sedimentation rate
32
15 [11; 27]
32
16 [11; 23]
32
17 [11; 28]
Tender joint count (28 joints)
32
3 [1; 8]
32
4 [2; 8]
32
2 [1; 10]
Swollen joint count (28 joints)
32
3 [2; 7]
32
4 [3; 6]
32
3 [1; 10]
Patient visual analogue scale (mm)
32
32 [16; 51]
32
45 [19; 62]
32
38 [22; 57]
C-reactive protein concentration (mg/L)
32
2.4 [1.4; 6.7]
32
2.1 [1.0; 5.2]
32
4.2 [0.9; 13.0]
Health Assessment Questionnaire score (0–3)
29
0.40 [0.15; 0.84]
32
0.62 [0.29; 0.95]
31
0.58 [0.16; 0.90]
Physician visual analogue scale (mm)
28
16 [7; 20]
27
15 [7; 23]
29
14 [7; 23]
Values are number of observations (), medians, and interquartile ranges [; ] unless stated otherwise. Disease modifying antirheumatic drugs.
