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Biofeedback Program
Research . . . .
It was fortuitous that biofeedback was
discovered to be a useful tool in the treatment of headache.
A research team under Elmer Green, Ph.D., director of Menninger
Foundation's Psychophysiology Laboratory, was testing biofeedback
as a possible method of treatment for certain mental and physical
conditions. A group of 33 women were taught to direct blood
flow to their hands on a voluntary basis. One of the subjects
happened to be a migraine patient. During the course of one
of the sessions she found that her headache stopped completely.
Dr. Green observed that this occurred at the same time that
her hands were becoming warmer (i.e. more blood flowed to
her hands).
The experiment was then reproduced, using
another migraine patient, with the same results. Finding no
explanation for this phenomenon in the literature, Dr. Green
speculated that the process of increasing blood flow into
the hands diverted the blood from the head. He observed, in
fact, that cold hands were common to migraines. Since blood
pulsates through swollen, painfully distended blood vessels
during migraine headaches, he reasoned that diverting the
blood flow in this way actually decreased the swelling, and
thus the pain.
A pilot study was then organized by Joseph
Sargeant, M.D., director of the Department of Internal Medicine
at Menninger, using only headache patients as subjects. After
a month of training with feedback from electronic equipment,
75 percent of the subjects were able to raise their hand temperature,
(i.e. increase peripheral blood flow), even without the use
of instrumentation. The technique proved successful in reducing
and even eliminating headaches in the vast majority of the
subjects. Still another biofeedback technique was developed
to help control tension-type (muscle contraction) headaches.
This type of headache is caused by muscle contraction and
spasm.
At the University of Colorado, Thomas
Budzynskl, Ph.D., Johann Stoyva, Ph.D., and Charles Adler,
MD, set out to determine whether this type of approach would
be helpful with muscle tension and the resulting pain. The
electromyograph (EMG) was used to monitor tension in specific
muscle groups. Immediate feedback about changes in tension
was given to the subjects. The participants were then asked
to reproduce the changes that would make the instrument show
a decrease in muscle tension.
After a short period of training the
subjects were able to learn to release muscle tension quickly
and accurately, eventually without the use of instrumentation
and feedback. They were thus able to reduce and even eliminate
pain. Subsequent research has shown that the use of EMG feedback
was also useful in the treatment of migraine headaches as
well. Currently, the protocol for both type of headaches is
a combination of the two modalities.
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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