Children with migraines can significantly reduce the number, intensity, and duration of their headaches with biofeedback training, suggest the results of a small study by German researchers.
"This training may offer children an effective alternative to migraine medications, which they do not respond to as well as do adults," said lead author Michael Siniatckin, MD, of the University of Kiel, Germany.
Ten children with migraines learned self-regulation of their brain's "slow cortical potentials" (SCPs) -- a measure of nerve cell activity in the cortex of the brain. Evidence suggests that migraines may be precipitated, in part, when neurons in the brain's cortex become overexcited. The goal of the training was to learn to use relaxation to control and dampen the peaks in cortex activity, reducing the chances of future migraines.
At a six-month follow-up, migraine symptoms had improved by up to 55 percent among those who learned biofeedback compared with up to 8 percent among a control group of 10 children that did not receive the training. Five of the biofeedback children had reduced their number of migraine attacks by 50 percent or more, and four had demonstrated some improvement. None of the control children displayed a 50 percent or better improvement in symptoms. The research was reported in the current issue of Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback.
Over the 10 biofeedback training sessions, the children's baseline level of cortical activity decreased and they increased their ability to dampen the SCPs. However, these changes did not fully explain the amount of improvement each child achieved in his or her migraine symptoms, the researchers say. It is possible that learning the techniques increased children's self-confidence in their ability to cope with migraine, a factor shown in other studies to influence treatment effectiveness. Other factors, such as the family environment, may have played a role as well.
"This exploratory study provided results emphasizing the potential significance of neurofeedback in the prophylactic treatment of migraine in childhood," said Siniatchkin. "We hope the clinical efficacy of neurofeedback in migraine will be studied and proved not only for children but for adults as well."
This work was supported by a grant from the German Research Foundation.
Applied Psychophysiology & Biofeedback is an international peer-reviewed journal published by Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers in association with the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. For information about the journal, contact Frank Andrasik, PhD, at (850) 202-4460.
Posted by the Center for the Advancement of Health http://www.cfah.org. For information about the Center, call Petrina Chong, pchong@cfah.org, at (202) 387-2829.
Journal
Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback