Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26665043›Full record

ArticleGlobal advances in health and medicine2015

Clinical Studies of Biofield Therapies: Summary, Methodological Challenges, and Recommendations.

Shamini Jain, Richard Hammerschlag, Paul Mills, Lorenzo Cohen, Richard Krieger, Cassandra Vieten, Susan Lutgendorf

Registry-linked trialOpen access · bronzeAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Global advances in health and medicine, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06100406 (Sound Healing for Anxiety), which is not on this map. Cited by 24 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
24citing papers in PubMed
11.1field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT06100406 naunknown statusnot on this mapstarted 2024, after this paper: background citation

Sound Healing for Anxiety: A Randomized Controlled Trial

TypeinterventionalSponsorConsciousness and Healing InitiativeRan2024 to 2025Enrolled100ConditionsAnxiety, Mental Health Issue, Anxiety Generalized, Anxiety StateArmsBiofield tuning
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

24 citing papers in PubMed, 151 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Trial
  2. Trial
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Biofield Therapies: Guidelines for Reporting Clinical Trials.Journal of integrative and complementary medicine · 2024
    Article
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. Review
  13. Review
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Energy Medicine: Current Status and Future Perspectives.Global advances in health and medicine · 2019
    Article
  18. Article
  19. An Integrative Review of Scientific Evidence for Reconnective Healing.Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) · 2017
    Review
  20. Epigenetic Mechanisms of Integrative Medicine.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2017
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.

Shamini JainDepartment of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego; and Center for Integrative Medicine, University of California San Diego; and Consciousness and Healing Initiative, San Diego (Dr Jain).
Richard HammerschlagConsciousness and Healing Initiative, San Diego; and The Institute for Integrative Health, Baltimore, Maryland (Dr Hammerschlag).
Paul MillsDepartment of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego; and Center for Integrative Medicine, University of California San Diego; and Center of Excellence for Research and Training in Integrative Health, University of California, San Diego (Dr Mills).
Lorenzo CohenThe University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston (Dr Cohen).
Richard KriegerInstitute of Noetic Sciences, Petaluma, California (Dr Krieger).
Cassandra VietenInstitute of Noetic Sciences, Petaluma, California; and California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, San Francisco (Dr Vieten).
Susan LutgendorfInstitute of Noetic Sciences, Petaluma, California; and Departments of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Urology, and Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Iowa, Iowa City (Dr Lutgendorf).
University of California, San Diego · USCalifornia Pacific Medical Center · USInstitute of Noetic Sciences · USMaryland University of Integrative Health · USThe University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center · USUniversity of Iowa · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Biofield therapies are noninvasive therapies in which the practitioner explicitly works with a client's biofield (interacting fields of energy and information that surround living systems) to stimulate healing responses in patients. While the practice of biofield therapies has existed in Eastern and Western cultures for thousands of years, empirical research on the effectiveness of biofield therapies is still relatively nascent. In this article, we provide a summary of the state of the evidence for biofield therapies for a number of different clinical conditions. We note specific methodological issues for research in biofield therapies that need to be addressed (including practitioner-based, outcomes-based, and research design considerations), as well as provide a list of suggested next steps for biofield researchers to consider.

Indexed as

Biofieldbiofield therapiesclinical trialsenergy medicinehands-on healinghealinghealing touchintegrative medicineReikitherapeutic touch

Identifiers

PMID26665043
PMCPMC4654788
OpenAlexW2178642068

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.