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Study: Prayer Reduces Temptation to Drink Alcohol

  • Veronica Neffinger

    Veronica Neffinger wrote her first poem at age seven and went on to study English in college, focusing on 18th century literature. When she is not listening to baseball games, enjoying the…

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  • Updated May 11, 2016

A new study has shown that prayer helps reduce cravings of recovering alcoholics.

According to CBN News, the study was conducted by New York University's Langone Medical Center. The results were published in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse.

The study measured the results of prayer on 20 long-term members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). 

The subjects participating in the study were shown images of alcoholic drinks and of people enjoying them. The images caused all study participants to crave alcohol.

The study participants were then given newspapers to read to try to overcome their cravings. Their desire for alcohol remained the same, however.

The participants were then told to recite the AA prayer called “The Serenity Prayer,” which says, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

When they were praying, the study participants’ alcohol cravings were reduced.

"Our findings suggest the experience of AA over the years had left these members with an innate ability to use the AA experience – prayer in this case – to minimize the effect of alcohol triggers in producing craving," said senior study author Marc Galanter, MD, professor of psychiatry and director of the Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse at NYU Langone.

Publication date: May 11, 2016