biofeedback

biofeedback, method for learning to increase one's ability to control biological responses, such as blood pressure, muscle tension, and heart rate. Sophisticated instruments are often used to measure physiological responses and make them apparent to the patient, who then tries to alter and ultimately control them without the aid of monitoring devices. Biofeedback programs have been used to teach patients to relax muscles or adjust blood flow in the case of headache, to help partially paralyzed stroke victims activate muscles, and to alleviate anxiety in dental patients.

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biofeedback

Information supplied instantaneously about an individual's own physiological processes. Data concerning cardiovascular activity (blood pressure and heart rate), temperature, brain waves, or muscle tension is monitored electronically and returned or “fed back” to the individual through a gauge on a meter, a light, or a sound. The goal is for the patient to use that biological data to learn to voluntarily control the body's reactions to stressful external events. A type of behaviour therapy, biofeedback training is sometimes used in combination with psychotherapy to help patients understand and change their habitual reactions to stress. Complaints treated through biofeedback include migraine headaches, gastrointestinal problems, high blood pressure, and epileptic seizures.

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biofeedback [‚bī·ō′fēd‚bak]

(psychology)

The use of instrumentation to provide immediate visual or auditory information to an individual about changes in one or more of the individual's physiologic processes not ordinarily perceived, such as brainwave activity, muscle tension, or blood pressure, in order to manipulate the process by conscious mental control.