Biofeedback therapy for pain is a complementary treatment approach that could have big benefits for people who suffer from neck, leg, and other types of pain. Here’s how biofeedback therapy (also called neurofeedback, neurotherapy, or neurobiofeedback) works.
What is biofeedback therapy for pain?
Biofeedback training focuses on the patient’s ability to retrain their brain to replace negative stimuli with positive. It is noninvasive and comes with very few risks.
Negative stimulation on the body causes it to react in a way to alert our mind that we are experiencing discomfort or trauma. This is usually interpreted by the brain as pain. Pain becomes classified as chronic when it lasts more than three months. Once it crosses this threshold, the body’s natural defenses against pain may be weakened or compromised. This creates a negative biofeedback loop that causes the body to continuously experience the pain.
Biofeedback therapy for pain can restore the body’s natural ability to respond to pain and alleviate negative feelings. It can teach your brain to create positive feelings instead.
How does biofeedback therapy work?
During biofeedback therapy for pain, the patient learns to control involuntary reactions to create more desirable outcomes. A specialist monitors the body’s natural reaction to negative stimuli and helps foster methods to change the way the person processes these feelings. With effective training, patients can turn these experiences into less uncomfortable situations. Specialized machines are used that monitor the patient’s voluntary responses to stimulation that causes pain in the body. The specialist will then lead the patient through a number of psychological and physiological techniques that alter the way their body reacts to stress or pain.
For example, during biofeedback therapy, the specialist may ask the patient to visualize their pain as a red energy. They are walked through the steps of the training session while the specialist monitors their body’s natural reactions. They ask them to visualize relief as a blue energy. With special attention to breathing and heart rate, they are then asked to replace the red, negative energy with the positive blue energy. Visualization like this can give the patients the tools to change the way their body reacts to the pain ultimately replacing it all together.
During training, patients are hooked up to machines measuring body functions.
Access to instant measurements helps patients learn when their efforts are successful, so they can employ the techniques at any time, any place. Each training session lasts about one hour, with the total number dependent on the patient and specific condition. Many patients begin to feel improvements within eight to ten sessions. In addition to the training sessions, specialists will likely assign additional relaxation-type exercises to try at home.
What do they monitor?
Biofeedback therapy for pain works by teaching people how to control physiological processes such as muscle activity and skin t