Article
Biofeedback – basics and indications
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Published: | October 24, 2011 |
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Outline
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Objective: Biofeedback is known to be an effective psychophysiological method with the power to enhance self-competence in healthy people but also in patients suffering from different diseases. Aim of this presentation is to give a survey about the method and its indications from a scientific and a pragmatic point of view.
Material/Methods: For this survey, the method and data of medical and scientific literature are presented.
Manuals of producers, a recent textbook which is used at the Medical University of Vienna and at the Austrian Society for Biofeedback and Psychophysiology/ÖBFP [1], and a literature search using scientific medical databases (Medline/Pubmed, Embase) and other popular search engines were used.
Results: By using a biofeedback-apparatus, and with the help of a so called biofeedback-therapist, clients and patients are able to gain self-competence. The biofeedback system transforms bodily functions into electrical signals and so called parameters, and – by giving feedback of these biological signals – helps the patient to get an insight into his body and to gain awareness about them. With this (bio-)feedback, and with skills given by the biofeedback-therapist, the patient has then the possibility to change deficits in bodily functions according a treatment goal. Skin conductance level and skin conductance response, peripheral temperature, pulse, heart rate, heart rate variability, electromyography, EEG, hem-encephalography are typical parameters used.
Typical indications are stress management and hypertension, dependencies, different anxiety disorders, attention deficit disorder and children with other school problems, dysthymia and other forms of depression like the so called burnout syndrome, but also sport-psychological interventions (peak performance training, …). Best scientific evidence has been reported for female and male incontinence, good evidence for pain syndromes like migraine and tension type headache, cervical syndrome, back pain and sciatica, temporomandibular disorder and bruxism, and abdominal pain in children. Furthermore, biofeedback has been reported to be able to reduce (but not to avoid) the use of medications and other medical interventions in some cases.
For all these indications, high or good scientific evidence has been reported within several medical high-impact journals, and furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the knowledge about useful and effective medical indications for the method of biofeedback seems to show a strong dependency on expertise – an expertise which is depending on 1) medical knowledge, and 2) knowledge about the method biofeedback itself. Nevertheless, regarding medical indications, biofeedback should only be seen as an effective additive part of scientific and evidence based state of the art treatment regimens. For medical purposes, biofeedback should not be used before medical diagnosis and/or treatment, and only after prescription of a physician!
Conclusion: Biofeedback has been reported to be effective in different non-medical and medical indications. For medical indications, biofeedback – if indicated – should be seen as an effective but additive tool within state of the art treatment regimens.
References
- 1.
- Crevenna R. Biofeedback – Basics und Anwendungen. Wien: Wilhelm Maudrich Verlag; 2010