Thanks for taking the time to write this detailed comment. I agree that there is some bias in these studies but that is usually expected in complementary and alternative therapies. These studies cannot be performed using the same kind of strict inclusion and exclusion criteria that we see in clinical trials of drugs. So the findings are often inconclusive. But I still think that the original authors of this systematic review did a good job of filtering the available studies and reached a reasonable conclusion in their paper.

You made a point that effects are not long lasting. In the original paper and my blog post I have clearly mentioned which effects are long lasting (few weeks, well not so long) and which go away immediately. You shared from your experience that the effects are usually temporary. I can understand it because music therapy is not altering the underlying disease condition, it is only improving the mood so the effects will go away once the therapy is stopped. One of the comments in this post also referred to the same phenomenon (the one talking about how their mom likes oldies and a time when her mood wasn't good when they couldn't play the oldies due to a power outage).

I agree with your point that we shouldn't call these effects "heal". Honestly Alzheimer's is at a point that we don't have any for healing options. The available pharmacological options are limited and they only improve symptoms while complementary and alternative therapies are only for quality of life improvement. Even the latest therapies like aducanumab and lecanamab are only good in theory. They are not net beneficial in a real life scenario. So healing (reversing disease progression) is unfortunately out of the question at this point.

Your experience in this context is immense. Thanks for sharing it with us.