A psychophysiological stress profile is sometimes used to evaluate whether biofeedback would be helpful. A stress profile is a diagnostic technique to look at how your body responds to stress. You are hooked-up to equipment which measures several different things. These may include muscle tension in one or more parts of your body, heart rate, blood pressure, finger temperature, blood volume in your fingers, and skin conductance (galvanic skin response). After being hooked-up you are usually asked to relax. Then you are subjected to a source of stress. This may include such things as verbal math problems which you are expected to do quickly, or loud noises. You may be asked to describe a situation that you find stressful and to talk about it. At some point you are then asked to relax again.
What emerges on this procedure is a picture of just how your body responds to stress. Some people respond with large changes in muscle tension, other people don't respond with changes in muscle tension, but have big changes in heart rate. The response on the stress profile is unique to each individual. From this procedure you can learn more about how your body responds to stress, and your doctor will learn more about what type of biofeedback might be helpful for you.
Many insurance companies cover biofeedback treatments for particular disorders. Headaches are one of the diagnoses that are sometimes covered. Some insurance companies still view biofeedback as an "experimental" technique. When biofeedback first emerged in the 1960's as a treatment technique, many believed that we would soon be able to control almost every aspect of our physiology. This has not turned out to be true. While biofeedback can be helpful for many people, many aspects of our physiology remain under automatic control. Biofeedback may help you if you suffer from one of the conditions that it is helpful for. Don't expect miracles, and remember that you are the one making the changes.
