Biofeedback Training and Tension-Type Headache

Abstract

SUMMARY -Biofeedback is a training method, which connects physiological and psychological processes in a person for the purposes of improving his/her physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health. In biofeedback treatment, an active role of the patient is stressed for him/her to be able to actively control the physiological and emotional processes. The aim of biofeedback is to improve the conscious control of the individual's involuntary physiological activity. Research has shown that biofeedback, either applied alone or in combination with other behavioral therapies (techniques), is an effective treatment for various medical and psychological disorders, from headache and hypertension to temporomandibular and attention deficit disorders. More than 90% of adults experience headache once a year, which makes headache one of the most common symptoms and diagnoses in medicine. Tension-type headaches occur in at least 40% of the population and their impact on the health insurance costs and diminished productivity is significant. Studies have shown that clinical biofeedback training is effective in treating headaches. Moreover, the authors stress the need for additional research and further development of methodology for this kind of research.

The Efficacy of Biofeedback Therapy for the Treatment of Fecal Incontinence After Soave Procedure in Children for Hirschsprung's Disease

“…While most of the patients will be able to regain normal bowel function 3 months later after the operation, fecal incontinence is common after surgical treatment, which can cause significant distress on the quality of life and social of the patients. Biofeedback is a conditioning treatment where information about a physiologic process (contraction and relaxation of a muscle) is converted to a simple visual or auditory signal to enable the patient to learn to control the disordered function, which has been increasingly used over the last decades in many clinical signs and symptoms including rehabilitation (16), tension-type headache (17), psychiatric disorders (18), and other areas like sport (19). Engel et al first pointed out in 1974 that biofeedback training could be used to treat fecal incontinence due to sphincter damage (20,21).…”

Integrated use of biofeedback and neurofeedback techniques in treating pathological conditions and improving performance: a narrative review

“…Neuromuscular biofeedback: provides a measure of muscle tension with surface electromyography (sEMG) and is used to treat fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue syndrome, repetitive strain injury, tinnitus, arthritis, diabetes, pediatric migraine, anxiety, chronic pain, temporomandibular junction disorders, and adult tension headache ( Blume et al, 2012 ; Šečić et al, 2016 ; Baumueller et al, 2017 ; Lazaridou et al, 2023 ).…”

“…-Cardiovascular biofeedback: detects heart rate (HR) and its variability (HRV), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and blood flow volume (blood volume pulse, BVP) and is used in the treatment of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) coronary artery disease, depression, fibromyalgia/ chronic fatigue syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, chronic pain, and hypertension (Rosaura Polak et al, 10.3389/fnins.2024.1358481 Frontiers in Neuroscience 03 frontiersin.org 2015;Thabrew et al, 2018;Fahrenkamp and Benore, 2019;Taghizadeh et al, 2019;Reneau, 2020;da Costa Maynart et al, 2021;Vital et al, 2021). -Neuromuscular biofeedback: provides a measure of muscle tension with surface electromyography (sEMG) and is used to treat fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue syndrome, repetitive strain injury, tinnitus, arthritis, diabetes, pediatric migraine, anxiety, chronic pain, temporomandibular junction disorders, and adult tension headache (Blume et al, 2012;Šečić et al, 2016;Baumueller et al, 2017;Lazaridou et al, 2023). -Skin conductance biofeedback: evaluates the activity of eccrine sweat glands and is used in the treatment of anxiety, hypertension, and car/seasickness (Elavally et al, 2020).…”