Biofeedback training

A technique in which a person uses information about a normally unconscious body function to gain conscious control over that function. Biofeedback training may help in the treatment of stress-related conditions, including certain types of hypertension, anxiety, and migraine. The patient is connected to a recording instrument that measures one of the unconscious body activities, such as blood pressure, heart-rate, or the quantity of sweat on the skin. The patient receives information (feedback) on the changing levels of these activities from changes in the instrument’s signals. Using relaxation techniques, the patient learns to change the signals by conscious control of the body function. Once acquired, this control can be exercised without the instrument.

 

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