Biofeedback Pain Management

Biofeedback is an increasingly valuable tool for people struggling with chronic pain. Biofeedback, a mind/body technique that trains people to improve their health by controlling certain bodily processes, is a treatment modality that has several advantages – specifically that it is non-invasive and non-addictive.

According to the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, “biofeedback is an effective treatment for migraine and tension headaches among both children and adults. This has been proven by numerous controlled studies with follow-ups of up to 15 years.” In addition, the American Association for Headache also cites biofeedback as an acceptable treatment for pain relief.

Other uses for Biofeedback include:
* Learn to control psychological stress and overcome anxiety.
* Improve focus and concentration.
* Gain control of emotional states.
* Enhance meditation experience.
* Reduce or eliminate anxiety before meetings, exams or public speaking.

Much in the same way that you rely on a thermometer or scale to let you know what is happening inside your own body, biofeedback machines can, in the same way, detect a person's internal bodily functions with far greater precision and sensitivity than a person can detect alone. In a therapy setting, a patient is connected to a biofeedback machine.

During the session, the biofeedback machine reflects back what is happening internally inside the patient’s body. For example, a biofeedback machine may picks up electrical signals in the muscles that indicate stress and anxiety.

There are three commonly used forms of biofeedback therapy, including:
* Electromyography (EMG), measures muscle tension
* Thermal biofeedback, measures skin temperature
* Neurofeedback or electroencephalography (EEG), measures brain wave activity

With the therapist’s assistance, the patient can then learn to make the physiological changes to better cope with stressors and can decrease their sensations of pain or anxiety.