Biofeedback

Best Uses for Biofeedback

Biofeedback is helpful in healing a wide variety of conditions, but it is particularly beneficial for stress-related disorders.  Learning to relax and dissipate tension is part of virtually all biofeedback training.  Research has substantiated its effectiveness in all of the following:

• Anxiety:  Biofeedback helps both adults and children reduce anxiety symptoms, emotional as well as physical.  Researchers at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, used a combination of EMG and thermal biofeedback to treat a group of 150 seventh and eighth graders who had been identified by their teachers as anxious.  After receiving only six sessions of each type of biofeedback, the children showed a significant reduction in their anxiety levels.
• Asthma:  In one study, people with asthma who were instructed in deep, diaphragmatic breathing were able to increase their air intake by 49%.  When biofeedback training was added, they improved another 22%.
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD):  Neurofeedback (EEG biofeedback) has helped hyperactive children and children with ADHD improve their ability to concentrate, leading to better school performance, and sometimes eliminating the need for medication.
• Headaches and Migraines:  One of the most successful and scientifically validated uses of biofeedback is relief and preventions of tension headaches and migraines. 
• High blood pressure (hypertension):  Many people have learned to regulate their blood pressure, lowering high readings to a healthy level. 
• Pain relief:  Biofeedback therapy has been very successful in treating chronic pain, including that from low-back, rheumatoid arthritis, menstrual cramps, and other conditions.  It helps decrease stress chemistry and increase the effectiveness of the body's natural painkillers (endorphins and enkephalins).
• Stroke, spinal cord damage, and other neuromuscular conditions:  Muscle biofeedback (EMG) can be very helpful to people who have had a stroke or people with impaired mind-body coordination due to nerve damage.  This is especially true if biofeedback treatment is begun early enough (within three months).  Quick treatment helps restore nerve cells that may not be allowing communication between the brain and the muscles.
• TMJ and other jaw problems:  Painful conditions such as TMJ and bruxism (grinding the teeth) are generally due to too much muscle tension held in the jaw.  Using EMG biofeedback, individuals can learn to reduce the frequency and intensity of the pain.  Most people who researchers studied required only about eight sessions to master the muscle relaxation.
• Urinary incontinence:  This condition, which affects millions of Americans, especially older women, can be helped dramatically with MEG biofeedback, often in conjunction with learning Keel exercises (teaching control over the muscles that allow urine to flow from the body).
• Other conditions:  In addition to the above, other health problems that can be helped by biofeedback include: depression, alcoholism, and various gastrointestinal disorders.

For great at home biofeedback resources see our Biofeedback Resource page.