Biofeedback For BPD APD NPD Treatment
Biofeedback...feedback
The notion of the "operant response" captures in a rigorous way what we
ordinarily mean by a "voluntary response." Operant or voluntary responses
are those responses that can be modified by their consequent reward or
punishment.
In contrast, there are some responses over which we clearly have no voluntary
control. The pupils of the eye contract when exposed to light, and
such contraction is not under operant control. If someone were to offer us a
reward for not contracting the pupils in our eyes in the face of a bright light,
we would fail despite our best effort. But there is a large middle ground between
clearly voluntary and clearly involuntary responses.
Biofeedback attempts to modify these marginally voluntary response systems by
electronically detecting, amplifying, and feeding back to the individual theinformation that the response has been made. Among the systems sensitive to operant relationships using biofeedback are heart rate, blood pressure,
the movement of small muscles, stomach secretions, brain waves, and penile erection.
Biofeedback's application to abnormal psychology depends on technological
advances in electronics, which permit the detection of minute electrical
signals resulting from the beating of the heart, changes in blood
pressure, and the movement of small muscles.
Biofeedback consists of the three steps: (1) electrical signals from the target response
system are electronically detected and amplified, (2) the signals are
converted to a visual or auditory signal, and (3) the signal is fed back to the
patient (Blanchard and Epstein, 1978). With the immediate feedback, the
patient can learn voluntary control over the response system.
The following case demonstrates the successful use of biofeedback in the modification of pain:
Tom had had a splitting headache off and on for three and a half years. The
headache seemed to be caused by a chronically high level of muscular tension in
Tom's forehead and the back of his neck. Tom was unable to reduce this muscle
tension voluntarily, and he could not tolerate the side effects of strong doses of
muscle-relaxing drugs. He turned to biofeedback as an alternative treatment.
Tom sat in a comfortable chair and electrodeswereplaced over the relevant muscle
groups in his forehead and neck. Whenever muscle tension in these groups
dropped below the desired level, a tone went on; whenever muscle tension went
back above this level, the tone went off After severalsessions of relaxation training,
Tom found that he wasable to keep the tone on most of the time and, to his
surprise, the headache disappeared. Home practice of relaxation plus occasional
booster sessions have kept Tom headache-free for the last two years. (Budzynski,
Stoyva, Adler,and Mullaney, 1973)
Therapy using biofeedback has expanded in the last five years. It has been
applied with notable success to headaches and pain of muscular origin, and
to the alleviation of paralysis following strokes. It has also been applied with
somewhat encouraging results to cardiac arrhythmia, phobia, essential hypertension,
migraine headache, spastic colon, peptic ulcer, asthma, and epilepsy.
I do question biofeedbacks success with BPD APD NPD Treatment...
BPD APD NPD Treatment explained here:
http://treating-borderline-personality.weebly.com
More info below:
Healing the unconscious
Looking for therapy?
For the spouse of a Borderline
For Borderline patients or BPD APD NPD
The Treatment method I recommend
is The Liberator Method.
Click here:
http://www.theliberatormethod.com/Welcome.html
http://treating-borderline-personality.weebly.com
More info below:
Healing the unconscious
Looking for therapy?
For the spouse of a Borderline
For Borderline patients or BPD APD NPD
The Treatment method I recommend
is The Liberator Method.
Click here:
http://www.theliberatormethod.com/Welcome.html