What is Biofeedback?

BIOFEEDBACK IS THE USE OF INSTRUMENTATION TO MIRROR PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESSES OF WHICH THE INDIVIDUAL IS NOT NORMALLY AWARE AND WHICH MAY BE BROUGHT UNDER VOLUNTARY CONTROL (George Fuller, 1984).

The word "biofeedback" was coined in the late 1960s to describe laboratory procedures (developed in the 1940s) that trained research participants to alter their brain activity, blood pressure, muscle tension, heart rate and other bodily functions that were believed to be involuntarily controlled by means of the autonomic nervous system. 

"Bio" is a combining word form meaning "life". "Feedback" denotes the concept of giving back information. In simple terms, "biofeedback" means feeding back information about life responses or bodily processes such as skin temperature, muscle tension, heart rate, blood pressure, brain wave activity, etc. Since every cell and function of the body can be influenced by the brain, "feeding" information "back" to the individual about what his body is doing influences the system.

Biofeedback is not just passive monitoring and measurement of physiological processes. Biofeedback is a training technique in which persons are taught to improve their health and performance by becoming more aware of, and using, physiological signals from their own bodies. Biofeedback is done so that the individual will become actively involved in controlling his own physiology in some desired manner; hence the term applied psychophysiology.

For example, one commonly used biofeedback device uses sensors taped to the skin to pick up electrical signals from the muscles and translate these signals into a form that the patient can detect. This device triggers a flashing light or activates a beeper every time muscles become more tense. If the patient wants to relax tense muscles, she must try to slow down the flashing or beeping. Patients learn to associate sensations from the muscles with actual levels of tension and develop a new, healthy habit of keeping muscles only as tense as necessary for as long as necessary. After such biofeedback treatment, individuals are then able to repeat this response at will without being attached to the sensors.

Other biological functions which are commonly measured and used in similar ways to help people learn to control their physical function are skin temperature, heart rate, respiration, sweat gland activity, and brain wave activity.

Clinicians rely on biofeedback machines in somewhat the same way that you rely on your scale or thermometer. Their machines can detect a person's internal bodily functions with far greater sensitivity and precision than the person can do alone. This information may be valuable. Both patients and therapists use it to gauge and direct the progress of treatment.

Although some people initially viewed these practices with skepticism, researchers proved that many individuals could indeed learn to alter their involuntary responses by being "fed back" information either visually or audibly about what was occurring in their bodies. In addition, studies have shown that we actually have more control over so-called involuntary bodily functions than we once thought possible. As a result, biofeedback can be very effective in training individuals with techniques for living a healthier life overall— whether one is afflicted with a medical condition or not.

While there may not be a precise definition for biofeedback, the following example may demonstrate how we all use biofeedback at one time or another. You may not have given much thought as to how you learned to ride a bicycle, and yet you employed a form of biofeedback in the learning process. If you had to consciously think of all the steps it takes to ride a bicycle, you may not have gotten past the first one. As you pedaled the first few shaky meters, your brain was processing the feedback it was getting from your body as it sought to balance on the bike. Your brain made automatic adjustments in your body's weight distribution and centre of gravity in order to achieve the balance necessary so you could keep pedaling and stay on the bike.

The application of biofeedback to health disorders is not new. In the ancient world, especially Eastern cultures, Yogis were able (and still are) to control involuntary body reflexes such as respiration and heart beat. By slowing down body functions, they were able to induce conditions that a more active or conscious body could not.

Biofeedback has found increasing acceptance in the psychological profession as practitioners seek alternative methods to drug therapies. For many people, living with pain and stress has become the price for living in the modern worId. While drug therapy might be effective, there are many people who are concerned about drug side effects. Moreover, drugs do not give you personal control over symptoms in the same way that biofeedback can. For some disorders, drugs only mask the more unpleasant symptoms but fail to correct the underlying problem but biofeedback together with appropriate psychotherapies— such as cognitive, behavioral, or schema-based therapies— can  frequently give us the tools to actually correct the conditions that cause psychological or physical health problems.

Biofeedback has been demonstrated especially effective in the treatment of acute and chronic illnesses that are stress-related, anxiety-driven or involve autonomic nervous system dysfunction. More recently, biofeedback of brainwaves or EEG has demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of seizure disorders, alcohol and drug addictions, and attention-deficit disorder in both children and adults. EEG biofeedback is also showing great promise in the treatment of other brain-based disorders such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, and cognitive and motor dysfunction resulting from head injury or stroke.

Some conditions that are treatable with biofeedback are…

• Anxiety Disorders
• Asthma
• ADHD/Attention-Deficit Disorder
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
• Chronic Pain
• Headaches (both migraine and tension)
• High Blood Pressure/Low Blood Pressure
• Insomnia
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• Knee Pain/Patella Femoral Syndrome
• Panic Attacks
• Raynaud’s Syndrome
• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Stress-Related Chronic Illnesses

Pros and Cons of Biofeedback