Ways to Treat Chronic Pain With Biofeedback Technique

All of us feel pain at some point in life. The body alerts when something is causing pain, and gradually as the injury heals, the pain goes away. Chronic pain lasts longer than three months, rendering a physical discomfort that affects mental health in most cases. Chronic pain interferes with everyday routines and hinders the person from doing their basic activities properly. Furthermore, depression, anxiety, and anger are caused by prolonged chronic pain, and these patients find it difficult to lead a normal life. Biofeedback is a technique used in a premium chronic pain management clinic to enhance a patient's mental health and physical performance. Electrical sensors collect information about the patient's health and provide it to the physician, who makes subtle changes in the body to reduce pain. In the article below, let us see how biofeedback therapy helps patients deal with chronic pain.

An Overview of Biofeedback Techniques Used by an Experienced Chronic Pain Management Clinic

Biofeedback is a technique that uses the body and mind connection to make patients aware of the biological processes. The medical equipment helps them control processes like blood pressure, muscle tension, and heart rate. Thus, patients learn to modify their own physiology to improve physical, emotional, spiritual and mental health. Biofeedback is used to treat tension headache, chronic pain, migraine headache, urinary incontinence and high blood pressure in big cities like Chennai in any renowned chronic pain management clinic. Biofeedback therapy lasts between 30 to 60 minutes and is a part of a physical therapy program. A patient generally requires around 8 to 20 sessions to see good results with health.

Also Read: An Overview of Comprehensive Interventional Pain Management

How Is Biofeedback Procedure Performed?

A therapist or technician performs biofeedback therapy, and they will initially explain the process to the patient. The professionals attach electrodes to the patient and connect them to a monitor. These electrodes work as sensors to record the information of the biological processes. Sensors are patches that stick to the skin on specific points. It is an active treatment and the entire procedure is painless. Any professional chronic pain management clinic in Chennai trains the therapists to guide the patients with utmost compassion throughout the biofeedback treatment process. By paying attention to the body when it is stressed and relaxed, the patient learns to look at the feedback signals on the monitor and process their own health information. Together with the help and guidance of the therapists, a patient will learn how to recognize the state of stress in their body and learn to calm themselves efficiently. Eventually, biofeedback therapy aims to equip the patients with the tools to relax the body without the help of a monitor. Research states that when patients do so frequently, most of their health issues tend to get resolved completely.

Machines & Relaxation Techniques Used in Biofeedback Therapy by a Popular Chronic Pain Management Clinic

The machines used during biofeedback therapies are:

1. Electroencephalogram (EEG) monitors the mental states of the brain. It is also called neurofeedback.
2. Electrocardiograms (ECG) monitor the heart rate.
3. Electromyogram (EMG) detects the muscle tension.
4. Pneumographs measure the respiratory rate.
5. Photoplethysmographs (PPG) measure the blood flow.
6. Temperature biofeedback is a thermometer attached to the patient's feet and fingers. Body temperature increases with stress. This technique is used in any chronic pain management clinic to help patients focus on relaxation by knowing their stress levels by analysing their body temperature.
7. Galvanic skin response training detects the sweat amounts in the skin. As people sweat more when they are stressed or anxious, these machines involve Electrodermographs (EDG) to detect the electrical property in the skin.
8. Hemoencephalographs (HEG) measure the amount of deoxygenated and oxygenated blood in the brain.
9. Rheoencephalographs (REG) measure the brain's blood flow.

The relaxation techniques that every well-established chronic pain management clinic uses on their patients are:

1. Therapists teach breathing exercises to slow down the breathing. Patients are advised to take deep inhalations and exhalations to stay relaxed.
2. Mindfulness focuses on making the patients enjoy the present without worrying about the future and past. It relaxes the mind and relieves stress effectively.
3. Progressive muscle relaxation is a technique to relax the entire body by relieving tension from the muscles.
4. Guided imagery is imagining scenarios under therapists' guidance to relax the mind and body.

Treating Chronic Pain With Biofeedback Techniques: How?

People get into a vicious cycle of stress and pain. Prolonged stress makes a patient get into a fight or flight situation. It does not pose any threat to the body in the short term, but when the stress turns out to be chronic, the pain starts to take a toll on the patient's body. The ways stress worsens chronic pain are described here.

1. As the body muscles are in tension for a longer-term, it creates great pain. It will reduce the movement range and decrease the reaction time.
2. Mental illness happens as prolonged stress has a negative impact on emotions. With mood swings, patients mess up managing pain and do not keep up with treatments. Eventually, this worsens the symptoms even more.
3. Negative perceptions naturally develop with pain. These perceptions include hypervigilance, catastrophizing, and fearing avoidance. This worsens the pain levels by worrying more and as a result, they start perpetuating chronic pain.
4. Lack of sleep due to chronic pain stresses the person, which affects the health of a person.
5. Inflammations worsen chronic pain. The stressed hormones get released in the body during the fight or flight phase, which affects the body's ability to regulate inflammation.

There are many ways to handle stress response and break the pain cycle, among which biofeedback is a technique that combats stress by relaxing the body. A highly equipped chronic pain management clinic in Chennai teaches patients to get out of their fight or flight minds by handling stress and reducing pain. By doing so, patients will be able to sleep in peace, function optimally throughout the day and have a positive mindset to lower pain levels.

The Takeaway
An interesting fact about biofeedback therapy is that it can up-train weak and inhibited muscles. JOGO is one of the best digital therapeutics clinics in Chennai to use biofeedback with other treatments to create the best results and effectively reduce patients' symptoms.