Biofeedback Summary

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The purpose of this article aimed to have a thorough discussion on biofeedback on chronic pain reduction. Biofeedback is a technique by which patients monitor their own bodily functions in an attempt to alter those functions. It has generally been practiced in area of pain control and stress reduction (Funk & Wagnalls, 2014).In other words, biofeedback is a circular feedback loop, as a brief description, it started from a pain or other physiological condition that caused the biofeedback monitor to signal. This then suggests the person to react and tries to gain control over the condition, which may later result the relief of the pain or other conditions. Its main intend is to reduce or relieve the physiological and/or psychological condition. …show more content…
Chronic pain and depression most likely have a bidirectional association: depression is a predictor of persistent pain and pain is a predictor of the persistence of depression. Depression and anxiety share the same psychological pathways as pain and can have a reciprocal effect on each other (de Heer E, 2014). As the above study stated, rather to say the relationship between anxiety and pain is a simple unidirectional causality, a vicious circle is a more accurate description. However, the limitation of the study mainly focus on the reliability of the data as they are based on self-report, which may have the possibility of over-reporting or un-reporting the chronic pain level and/or anxiety disorder. Yet, it is certain that chronic pain is not purely biological but also has psychological …show more content…
The idea behind biofeedback is that, by harnessing the power of the mind and becoming aware of what's going on inside the body, an individual can gain more control over his or her health (Whitney, A., 2014). It is important to understand that biofeedback does not change the body anxiety response or level, but serves as an acceleration tool for self-learning of control over both psychological and physiological conditions. In other words, biofeedback only provides the signals of the physiological conditions and makes one be aware of it. The actual reduction of pain is done by the patients themselves as a result of trying to relax their body tension or manipulate their symptoms. As the basic principle of biofeedback stated, “Feedback makes learning possible”
Based on above, the following statement can be concluded: First, there is an interaction between mind and body, where the chronic pain is caused by the psychological symptom, and in contrast, psychological thoughts, or will, are able to influence physiological condition. Second, biofeedback is essentially a technical tool that provides physical feedback to the patients. Third, it cannot do anything to the chronic pain without the actual effort of the patient to respond to the