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Biofeedback Program
History . . . .
Biofeedback was the natural scientific
outcome of studies involving conditioning (both classical
and operant), behavior modification, the adaptive syndrome
and other aspects of psychophysiology and physical psychology;
along with the advent of the age of electronics. Studies completed
in the late 1960s by Neal Miller; Ph.D. of Rockefeller University,
showed that laboratory animals could be trained to increase
or decrease their heart rates by simply being rewarded for
producing the desired physiological responses. Later, by teaching
six laboratory animals to blush only in the right ear and
another six to blush only in the left, the Miller research
group was able to demonstrate that animals could learn to
dilate specific blood vessels despite the fact that these
organs are controlled by sympathetic (involuntary) nerves.
At the same time, other scientists worked
with human subjects. Given feedback about specific automatic
physiological responses of which they were normally unaware,
these subjects were taught to modify or control such automatic
processes as heart rate and hand temperature. Within the last
25 years, continued research has shown biofeedback to be a
viable therapeutic tool in the treatment of many disorders,
including headache, high blood pressure, Raynaud's disease,
muscle spasm, chronic anxiety, neuro-muscular dysfunction,
epilepsy, insomnia, asthma and numerous other conditions.
The following statements have been issued
regarding biofeedback:
- American
Medical Association
"The Diagnostic and Therapeutic Assessment panelists who
were familiar with biofeedback as a therapeutic modality
generally agreed that the use of frontalis muscle electromyographic
biofeedback and operant conditioning is an established treatment
of both vascular and tension (muscle contraction) headaches.
This position is supported by the American Psychiatric Association.
Biofeedback is an established treatment of headaches, particularly
those of vascular origin."
The American Association for the
Study of Headache endorses biofeedback as a valid form
of treatment. Headache, Volume xviii, May 1978
Many famous scientists and prestigious
institutions of higher learning have also been carrying
out research projects of biofeedback and its applications
in medicine and patient behavior. Research has been done
at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas; the Mayo
Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota; the Diamond Headache Clinic
in Chicago, Illinois; the Sepulveda Veterans Administration
in Los Angeles, California; Rockefeller University in
Brooklyn, New York; the State University of New York,
Albany, New York; the University of Colorado in Boulder
and many other hospitals and scientific institutions of
biofeedback.
Find out  more
about the DHC Biofeedback Program
What is Biofeedback?
The DHC Biofeedback Program
Program Description
Program History
Biofeedback Research and Headache
Program Goals/Medical Coverage
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