Effectiveness of a Sound Bowl Meditation on Caregiver Stress and Anxiety: A Pilot Study

Over the past 10 years, the number of adults who provide essential in-home care for family members has increased by 50%. These family caregivers are often spouses or partners, adult children, siblings, parents, or other individuals within the patient's social network. Currently in the U.S., more than 42 million family members serve as primary caregivers for chronically ill and/or disabled adults or children, providing all physical care, symptom management, and psychosocial support. With little to no formal training, almost half of these family caregivers provide high-intensity medical care that involves complex medication administration, patient transfers and mobility assistance, and management of medical equipment. As the aging U.S. population increases, more individuals will need care and assistance while rising healthcare costs will make professional care, offered at home or within a facility, less accessible and less affordable. While education and skills training related to management of the family member's medical needs and safety for the caregiver are essential, regular interventions that can improve resilience, provide intellectual stimulation, promote social connection and relaxation are necessary to counter the negative effects of caregiving.

Sound medicine is a relatively new name for sound interventions that can elicit happiness, contentment, and relaxation. Sound interventions encompass musical and non-musical sounds, such as nature sounds and calming voices. Exposure to these sounds have shown reduced stress and improved well-being. Sound healing has been in existence for centuries and has been used in a variety of cultures as an integral part of life events and celebrations. While any instruments that produce a beat or melody can be used in sound healing, sound bowls, also called singing bowls, can produce frequencies that resonate within the human body to promote deep relaxation and an improved sense of well-being. Although the mechanism of effect is not well understood, the binaural beats and vibrations emitted by the sound bowls may interact with the energy field surrounding the human body. The beat frequency of the sound bowls mirrors the theta wave region of the brain which increases in the relaxed meditation state. The facilitation of more meditative state through exposure to sound bowl interventions has shown improvements in anxiety, depression, fatigue, and mood, as well as physiological improvements in blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, peripheral oxygen saturation and positive electroencephalographic changes.

Supportive interventions for family caregivers should optimally provide brief periods of respite without requiring physical or mental exertion to perform. Participating or receiving a sound bowl intervention is passive and has no reported negative side effects. Given the gap in the literature related to the effects of sound bowl interventions for family caregivers, and the physical, mental, and emotional stressors inherent in the caregiving role, the evaluation of benefits for this low cost, low technology invention is practical and needed.

The purpose of this pilot study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a 6-week sound bowl meditation intervention on caregiver perceived stress and anxiety. Results from this pilot study will be used to assess feasibility of the study protocol and inform a future, larger study.

Due to the prevalence of caregiver perceived stress and anxiety, the investigators hypothesize that a sound bowl meditation intervention, offered weekly over the course of 6 weeks, will reduce caregiver perceived stress and anxiety.