PEDIATRICS Vol. 55 No. 6 June 1975, pp. 796
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BIOFEEDBACK TRAINING: A REVIEW OF EVIDENCE

E. B. Blanchard 1 and L. D. Young 1

1 Clinical Applications of Biofeedback Training: A Review of Evidence (Arch. Gen. Psychiatry, 30:573, 1974)

The wonders of biofeedback training for treatment of many psychosomatic disorders such as hypertension, migraine headaches, cardiac arrhythmias, and epilepsy have appeared in Playboy, National Observer, and Medical World News, as well as in professionally edited journals. Alpha wave control by EEG feedback has become a popular executive creativity induction method. In a careful review of the published papers with good controls clinical effectiveness has been established only for EMG feedback training to eliminate subvocal speech during reading, in muscle retraining of paralytics, and in treatment of tension headaches. The therapeutic value of EEC biofeedback on alpha rhythms has not been demonstrated. Substantial reduction of blood pressure and cardiac arrhythmias has been achieved but convincing control data are not available. Modification of gastric acidity or migraine has not been demonstrated.

It would seem premature to hail biofeedback training as a panacea for psychosomatic and other disorders, but the evidence is interesting and highly provocative.