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StumbleUponFortunately, Cohen, a New York City resident, no longer needs to worry about when and where migraine pain might attack. In 1998, a friend referred her to a biofeedback training center, where in 20 sessions she learned to control her own brain-wave activity, and to prevent pain with the power of her own mind.
A growing number of Americans are discovering the power of biofeedback therapies, which use electrical devices to measure and help regulate bodily functions such as breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, brain waves, and temperature, to treat a wide range of conditions from migraines to attention deficit disorder (ADD) to cancer pain. In fact, a Harvard study shows the number of people who visited a biofeedback practitioner in 1997 was more than double the number who sought the same treatment in 1990. That may be because new technology is revitalizing the field, which has been around for more than 30 years.
Breakthroughs in the area of neurofeedback--a type of biofeedback that uses an EEG (electroencephalograph) to measure brain-wave activity--have enabled practitioners to apply biofeedback to more conditions and achieve highly effective results, says Olafur Palsson, Psy.D., Director of Behavioral Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School, in Norfolk. As a result, more and more insurers are reimbursing for the treatment. "The equipment is easier to use and more affordable, so an increasing number of mental health and medical professionals offer neurofeedback to their patients. We can treat a whole new set of problems with it."
Here, the pros and cons, and how it works.
Plugging In
The concept behind the therapy is that by becoming aware of body functions that we normally take for granted (such as heart rate) through auditory or visual cues from electronic devices, we can learn to control our physiologic responses.
In a neurofeedback session, for example, electrodes are attached to the scalp and ear to monitor brain-wave frequency ranges associated with different mental states. The EEG readout is displayed on a screen watched by a therapist, while a training program (often similar to a video game) is displayed on another screen for the patient. The computer is programmed to help you monitor and change your brain-wave patterns while playing the "game." But unlike an arcade game, there are no hand controls--you use your mind to maneuver through the program.
Catching Good Waves
Ideally, you will learn to produce more of the "good" brain waves and fewer of those that cause problems, says Leslie Seiden, M.D., a New York City psychiatrist who practices EEG biofeedback.
Many problems such as ADD and addictions may reflect deficiencies in the way the brain regulates itself, says Dr. Seiden. People with ADD "produce too many theta waves, which cause the mind to literally wander, and not enough beta waves, those that make us alert," she says.
Biofeedback enthusiasts believe this concept can be applied to other conditions. Siegfried Othmer, Ph.D., a physicist and founder of EEG Spectrum, an Encino, Calif., company that manufactures neurofeedback equipment, became a practitioner in 1987, after seeing how the therapy helped tame his son Brian's violent epileptic seizures and behavior problems. "Epileptic seizures are the result of an instability in the brain's electrical system. Neurofeedback may help stabilize these electrical circuits and reduce seizures," says Dr. Othmer.
Biofeedback's effectiveness in treating epilepsy and ADD is well researched. One study, from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, shows that children with ADD who underwent two to three months of neurofeedback training exhibited significantly lower levels of inattentive behavior than kids with ADD who had not. Joel Lubar, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Tennessee who pioneered research on the use of neurofeedback to treat ADD, contends that the therapy also holds promise in treating depression.
A 1996 study from Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill., found a correlation between changes in alpha brain-wave activity resulting from EEG biofeedback training and improved mood in depressed patients.
Furthermore, in a 1995 study conducted at the Biofeedback Center, in Pacific Grove, Calif., alcoholic patients with depressive symptoms reported feeling less blue and had a lower rate of relapse after EEG training. If neurobiofeedback can be used to heighten alertness and lift depression, couldn't it also be used to improve everyday activities? Many neurofeedback practitioners think so. "We can use it to sharpen mental functioning on the job or on the tennis court, and to keep you mentally sharp as you age," says Dr. Seiden, who uses the new technology to help her clients achieve what she calls "peak performance." But be forewarned, your killer backhand may not come as easily as you'd like. Though some of her patients may see improvements in performance in just a few sessions, others may need as many as 20.
Other applications are still experimental. Some practitioners believe that sufferers of anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome, and PMS could all benefit from neurofeedback. Sarah Bremer Parks, M.S., a therapist in the Eating Disorders Program at the Menninger Clinic, in Topeka, Kans., uses biofeedback to help women with eating disorders. "Restricting food intake is primarily about control. We use biofeedback as an adjunct to teach women more positive methods for feeling in control of their bodies," she explains.
This sense of control and personal responsibility is something mainstream medicine doesn't always provide, observes Barrie R. Cassileth, Ph.D., Chief of the Integrative Medicine Service at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. If nothing else, she says, biofeedback can offer a sense of empowerment that may have an important impact on the healing process.
Migraine sufferer Susan Cohen, for one, is a happy customer. "I couldn't believe I could control my own headaches," she says. "It's amazing."
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