Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical effectiveness of biofeedback treatment in reducing tics in patients with Tourette syndrome.
BACKGROUND: Despite advances in the pharmacologic treatment of patients with Tourette syndrome, many remain troubled by their tics, which may be resistant to multiple medications at tolerable doses. Electrodermal biofeedback is a noninvasive biobehavioral intervention that can be useful in managing neuropsychiatric and neurologic conditions.
METHODS: We conducted a randomized controlled trial of electrodermal biofeedback training in 21 patients with Tourette syndrome.
RESULTS: After training the patients for 3 sessions a week over 4 weeks, we observed a significant reduction in tic frequency and improved indices of subjective well-being in both the active-biofeedback and sham-feedback (control) groups, but there was no difference between the groups in these measurements. Furthermore, the active-treatment group did not demonstrably learn to reduce their sympathetic electrodermal tone using biofeedback.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that this form of biofeedback training was unable to produce a clinical effect greater than placebo. The main confounding factor appeared to be the 30-minute duration of the training sessions, which made it difficult for patients to sustain a reduction in sympathetic tone when their tics themselves were generating competing phasic electrodermal arousal responses. Despite a negative finding in this study, electrodermal biofeedback training may have a role in managing tics if optimal training schedules can be identified.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 17-24 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology |
Volume | 27 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2014 |
Keywords
- Adolescent
- Adult
- Biofeedback, Psychology
- Female
- Galvanic Skin Response
- Humans
- Male
- Surveys and Questionnaires
- Tics/etiology
- Tourette Syndrome/psychology
- Treatment Outcome
- electrodermal activity
- sympathetic autonomic arousal