Completed

Distant Healing Efforts for AIDS by Nurses and "Healers"

0 criteria met from your profileSee at a glance how your profile meets each eligibility criteria.
What is being tested

Data Collection

Who is being recruted

Blood-Borne Infections
+11

+ Urogenital Diseases
+ Genital Diseases
From 18 to 65 Years
See all eligibility criteria
How is the trial designed

Treatment Study

Interventional
Study Start: December 2000
See protocol details

Summary

Principal SponsorNational Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
Last updated: January 14, 2026
Sourced from a government-validated database.Claim as a partner
Study start date: December 1, 2000Actual date on which the first participant was enrolled.

Significant numbers of people with HIV/AIDS seek spiritual or "psychic" treatment. Distant healing could potentially be of benefit to large numbers of HIV/AIDS patients, as it is widely available and requires no travel or other activity on the part of the patient. However, the treatment can be costly and has not yet been proven effective in a controlled clinical trial. This study will evaluate the efficacy of distant healing in patients with HIV/AIDS. Participants in this study will be randomly assigned to either the distant healing group or a control group. All participants will have hour-long study visits at entry and Months 6 and 12. At study visits, participants will complete a demographic questionnaire, self-report health and symptom inventory, quality of life assessment, and profile of mood states. Blood will be drawn at each study visit.

Official TitleDistant Healing Efforts for AIDS by Nurses and "Healers" 
NCT00079534R01AT000485-01
Principal SponsorNational Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
Last updated: January 14, 2026
Sourced from a government-validated database.Claim as a partner

Protocol

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.
Design Details
150 patients to be enrolledTotal number of participants that the clinical trial aims to recruit.
Treatment Study
These studies test new ways to treat a disease, condition, or health issue. The goal is to see if a new drug, therapy, or approach works better or has fewer side effects than existing options.

How participants are assigned to different groups/arms
In this clinical study, participants are placed into groups randomly, like flipping a coin. This ensures that the study is fair and unbiased, making the results more reliable. By assigning participants by chance, researchers can better compare treatments without external influences.

Other Ways to Assign Participants
Non-randomized allocation: Participants are assigned based on specific factors, such as their medical condition or a doctor's decision.
None (Single-arm trial): If the study has only one group, all participants receive the same treatment, and no allocation is needed.

How treatments are given to participants
Participants are divided into different groups, each receiving a specific treatment at the same time. This helps researchers compare how well different treatments work against each other.

Other Ways to Assign Treatments
Single-group assignment: Everyone gets the same treatment.
Cross-over assignment: Participants switch between treatments during the study.
Factorial assignment: Participants receive different combinations of treatments.
Sequential assignment: Participants receive treatments one after another in a specific order, possibly based on individual responses.
Other assignment: Treatment assignment does not follow a standard or predefined design.

How the interventions assigned to participants is kept confidential
Neither participants nor researchers know who is receiving which treatment. This is the most rigorous way to reduce bias, ensuring that expectations do not influence the results.

Other Ways to Mask Information
Open-label: Everyone knows which treatment is being given.
Single-blind: Participants do not know which treatment they are receiving, but researchers do.
Triple-blind: Participants, researchers, and outcome assessors do not know which treatment is given.
Quadruple-blind: Participants, researchers, outcome assessors, and care providers all do not know which treatment is given.

Eligibility

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria: person's general health condition or prior treatments.
Conditions
Criteria
Any sexBiological sex of participants that are eligible to enroll.
From 18 to 65 YearsRange of ages for which participants are eligible to join.
Healthy volunteers not allowedIf individuals who are healthy and do not have the condition being studied can participate.
Conditions
Pathology
Blood-Borne Infections
Urogenital Diseases
Genital Diseases
Communicable Diseases
Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes
Immune System Diseases
Infections
Retroviridae Infections
RNA Virus Infections
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Virus Diseases
Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Viral
HIV Infections
Lentivirus Infections
Criteria

Inclusion criteria * HIV infection * History of a CD4 cell count less than 200 cells/mm3 * Stable antiretroviral regimen * English-speaking Exclusion criteria * Inability or unwillingness to fill out questionnaires * History of non-HIV related life-threatening disease

Study Centers

These are the hospitals, clinics, or research facilities where the trial is being conducted. You can find the location closest to you and its status.
This study has 1 location
Suspended
California Pacific Medical CenterSan Francisco, United StatesSee the location
CompletedOne Study Center
;