Biofeedback

Most biofeedback with chronic pain patients is done with the electromyograph (EMG). This device measures muscle tension by recording electrical activity in the skin. The EMG is most helpful when the pain has an exaggerated muscle tension component, such as tension headache and lower back pain. Electrodes are attached to the site of the pain, and the patient is instructed to relax. When sufficient relaxation is achieved, the machine signals with a tone or a light. The signal serves as feedback to the patient. Biofeedback is successful because itu teaches patients to recognize patterns of emotional arousal and conflict that affect their psyhological responses. They can then learn self-regulations skills to help them control their pain.

A major benefit of biofeedback is that it helps people feel they have some control over the pain. Patients with lower back pain who received EMG biofeedback showed a significant decrease in their tension levels and in subjective reports of pain, as compared to patients who did not receive biofeedback. Whati is remarkable about this study is that when the same patients were studied three months later, their tensions levels had returned to pretreatment levels, but they still reported lowered levels of pain. These results suggest that the EMG training was successful in teaching the patients that they need not accept the pain as uncontrollable. They could assume an internal locus of control over their pain and therefore cope more effectively with it.