The biofeedback technique is more of a training process than a treatment in the strict sense of the term, in which the patient participates actively.
Biofeedback teaches you how to control your body’s automatic and unconscious functions—such as breathing rate, heart rate, muscle contractions, sweating, blood pressure, and many others—so that you are able to improve your physical or psychological condition, reduce your stress, and relieve chronic pain.
For example, biofeedback can detect muscle contractions that cause headaches. Through biofeedback, you learn how to make deliberate physical changes, such as relaxing those specific muscles, in order to reduce your pain.
The ultimate goal is for you to learn to use these techniques on your own so that you can relieve symptoms outside the clinic, at home.
Biofeedback requires time, effort, and work at home. Before beginning the sessions, the therapist will take a detailed medical history, including medications and other treatments you are undergoing.
They will discuss your symptoms and expectations with you and explain what biofeedback can do for you.
You will then sit comfortably, and the therapist will attach electrodes to your body that connect to sensors, explaining what each sensor will measure. The placement of the electrodes depends on the condition being treated. For example, for muscle spasms, the electrodes may be connected to muscles in the head, neck, or elsewhere.
The electrodes do not cause pain or any other discomfort; they simply record the signals your body emits and display them as visual or audio cues on a screen.
Any change in these signals from your body—for example, a change in headache intensity—appears as a change in the visual or auditory pattern on the screen in front of you, informing you that a change has occurred in an automatic function of your body.
Gradually, guided by your therapist, you learn how to take control of your body’s automatic functions and change the signals it emits.
A biofeedback session lasts 30 to 60 minutes, while the number and frequency of sessions are determined by your condition and by how quickly you learn to control your unconscious automatic functions.
Biofeedback is a method used to treat a wide range of conditions, such as asthma, digestive problems, urinary incontinence, bowel dysfunctions, stress, depression, Raynaud’s syndrome, and hypertension.
Especially regarding pain, studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of the method in managing chronic pain due to arthritis, low back pain, neck pain, migraine, tension-type headache, and fibromyalgia.
Among its important advantages are that it is a non-invasive method, that it may reduce the need for medication or enhance its benefits, and that it can be used safely during pregnancy, where medication use may be limited.
