1- Acute inflammatory conditions:

This includes those conditions in which inflammation is in an acute phase where treatment can exacerbate pain. Cases of rheumatoid arthritis have been reported which have shown a negative reaction to vibroacoustic therapy.

2- Pacemakers

Wigram argues that it is sensible to contraindicate vibroacoustic therapy for patients who have pacemakers. It is known that such individuals should not be exposed for any period of time to magnetic fields since they might have an effect on the operation of a pacemaker.

3- Psychosis

Many psychotic patients may not understand the type of stimulus they are receiving, and the vibratory experience might provoke paranoid thoughts or feelings of insecurity. The relaxing, comfortable and pleasant feeling produced by the vibration that other patients are able to experience might be perceived as an internal invasion in the psychotic patient’s body. Therefore, it would be sensible to administer this treatment to psychotic patients only when someone who knows them well is present and can explain to them what is happening, and can also end the treatment if the patient has a very negative response.  

4 – Pregnancy

In spite of the fact that there is no apparent evidence that vibroacoustic therapy can do any damage to the foetus or cause any disturbance to the normal maturation of the baby, it would be sensible to contraindicate vibroacoustic therapy as a treatment for pregnant women, at least until there is more evidence on the effects of the vibratory stimulus.  As an alternative treatment, it is recommended to avoid using the vibroacoustic stimulus and only use sound bath techniques.

5- Acute physical conditions:

This approach is not necessarily contraindicated but when someone is suffering from any acute condition, it is important to previously check with a general practitioner what treatments are being administered so that vibroacoustic therapy does not disturb or affect an existing intervention. In the event of a patient undergoing an existing treatment for an acute physical condition, it is necessary to closely monitor responses to vibroacoustic therapy before undertaking sustained intervention.

6- Hypertonia

In some cases, vibroacoustic therapy has caused reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. In patients who suffer from hypertonia, and already have low blood pressure, vibroacoustic therapy might cause inactivity, lethargy and lack of response.

Still, many contraindications revealed by Wigram can be reconsidered.  The speakers that emit low frequency sounds are built into the bed and therefore remain fixed. The vibroacoustic stimulus is located in areas of the body that are in contact with the speakers and are always the same body regions that receive the vibrations. Another advantage of vibroacoustic bowls is that since they are easy to handle, the stimulus can be placed in different parts of the body, choosing not to stimulate those areas that are sore, or in the case of pregnant women, preventing an excessive amount of vibration from reaching the foetus, for example by avoiding contact with the belly. This approach can be very beneficial for an expectant mother as long as it is her we are trying to relax without disturbing the tranquillity of the foetus in the uterus.

If the baby is upside-down, its ears are very close to the mother’s femur. It would be unsuitable to rub the vibroacoustic bowl near that bone since it works as a means of sound transmission, and it can affect the baby’s ears that are still very fragile. However, if the bowl is placed on the mother’s hands, the foetus would not be affected at all since sound must travel quite a long distance to get to the uterus and there are many obstacles along the way (e.g. elbow joints, shoulder, clavicle and sternum, among others). The same applies to patients with pacemakers.  It would be unsuitable to let a large amount of vibration reach the device. In order to avoid this, the bowl should be held away from the body area where the pacemaker is located.

Thus, it is important to know the phenomenon of E sound propagation.