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Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry logoLink to Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry
. 1983 Jun;46(6):525–532. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.46.6.525

Biofeedback and relaxation in the treatment of migraine headaches: comparative effectiveness and physiological correlates.

J M Lacroix, M A Clarke, J C Bock, N Doxey, A Wood, S Lavis
PMCID: PMC1027443  PMID: 6348213

Abstract

Twenty-seven migraine headache patients were divided into three equal groups which received thermal biofeedback, frontalis EMG biofeedback, or relaxation training. Training was given under "massed" practice conditions (nine sessions per week) and consisted of 18 training sessions and six test-generalisation sessions. While improvements in headaches were observed in all groups, the best improvements took place in the thermal biofeedback group, which had almost complete elimination of migraine attacks by the end of training, and maintained that performance as long as six months after training. Examination of the patterns of skin temperature and EMG changes in the three groups over the course of training also points to a relationship between skin temperature control and reduction in migraine headache symptomatology, and suggests that this relationship is worthy of further investigation.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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