Arizona Pain Specialists continues to add services in order to provide the full multidisciplinary approach to pain management. We have recently added a biofeedback program to the medical services offered to our patients. Biofeedback is an important, painless, non-drug therapy in the treatment of headaches, fibromyalgia, reflex sympathetic dystrophy and chronic spine pain. It is a method that teaches patients to control bodily functions, such as heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension, which were once considered to be beyond voluntary control. However, research has shown that by monitoring these functions and feeding back information to the patient on an ongoing and immediate basis, voluntary control can be taught. Information is fed back to the patient with visual and auditory instruments.
Through a process that includes conditioning, feedback instrumentation, behavior modification, and adaptation mechanisms, the individual can learn self-regulation of bodily functions. Using these techniques of self-regulation, the patient can actually learn to change specific responses of the body, e.g. release of muscle tension and spasm, lowering of blood pressure, and diminishing and even stopping chronic pain.
Biofeedback is a formal training program that can, with daily practice, help to alleviate headache and pain symptoms. The ultimate goal is to integrate these techniques into the course of daily living. This form of training includes the individual as an active participant in his or her own health care.
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