Singing bowl therapy: I gladly admit that I did not know about this SCAM

I am always on the lookout for forms of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) with which I am unfamiliar. Today, I found one!

The SINGING BOWL is a bowl-shaped instrument originating in China and Tibet that can be made of various metals, including copper, tin, zinc, iron, silver, gold, and nickel. It is played by hitting or rubbing its edges with wooden or leather mallets. Different frequencies of sound can be produced by hitting singing bowls with different materials and sizes. It was initially utilized by Tibetan

Buddhist monks to conduct religious rites and for healing.

In the 1970s, a Dutch psychotherapist named Hans De Back, who was suffering severe pain due to ankylosing spondylitis, discovered that this instrument helped his condition. He transformed this discovery into a therapeutic modality according to the Tibetan health and rehabilitation theory.

As a type of vibroacoustic therapy, the singing bowl therapy generates vibration on the body surface and emits sounds of varying frequencies depending on the material and size of bowls. It provides a combination of vibration, music listening combined providing a therapeutic interaction. The use of singing bowls can be regarded as a SCAM that combines medicine, psychology and musicology.

But is it effective?

This systematic review aimed to analyze all available clinical evidence, and determine any beneficial or adverse effects of singing bowl in any population.

Databases searched included PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, PsyINFO, CINAHL, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, Sinomed from database inception to July 2024. Clinical studies of singing bowl therapy, regardless of research type, population, and intervention were included. The risk of bias of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was assessed using the Cochrane tool. Data from randomized trials were analyzed and presented as the mean difference with 95% confidence intervals, And the results from two or more separate trials with same study type that evaluated similar populations, interventions, comparisons and outcomes were statistical pooled using meta-analysis.by Stata.16 software.

Nineteen clinical studies originated from eight countries and published between 2008 and July 2024 were identified. Half were RCTs (9), the remainder included case series studies (7), randomized crossover studies (2) and non-RCT (1).

The evidence showed that singing bowl has been applied to a wide range of conditions, including the elderly, surgery, Parkinson’s disease, pain, cancer, neurological function, sleep disorder, depression, anxiety, autism spectrum disorder, as well as physiological and psychological function,and it has mainly focused on outcomes related to mental health.

The authors concluded that singing bowls may have potential to alleviate anxiety, depression, improve quality of sleep and cognitive function in various patient groups, and change autistic behavior. It also shows potential benefits in physiological improvements like electroencephalography.

The authors forgot to mention in their abstract that non-RCTs are nearly worthless for evaluation therapeutic effectiveness and that all RCTs were of poor quality and thus equally worthless. Why then do they bend over backwards to draw a positive conclusion. The answer might lie in their affiliations:

a Centre for Evidence-Based Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China

b NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Australia

c Beijing Jingmei Group General Hospital, Beijing, China

d Dongzhimen Hospital of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China

e Monitoring and Statistical Research Center, National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China

f Institute of Health and Social Care, London South Bank University, London, United Kingdom

What is perhaps even more impressive: the senior author of the review, Nicola Robinson, is a member of our ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE HALL OF FAME!

SAY NO MORE!