Biofeedback application for somatoform disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children

Abstract

Biofeedback is a modern computer-related technique used mainly for assessment and therapy of psychophysiological disorders. The influx of about 800 patients per year with stress related disorders is the cause of extensive clinical use of biofeedback in our Department. In this article some results obtained with electrodermal (EDR) and electroencephalography (EEG) biofeedback in the assessment and therapy of children with two most common disorders somatoform and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in the period of fifteen years are presented and discussed. The two groups of patients comprised 243 children with somatoform problems (age 10.31 ± 2.75 years) and 50 children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (age 11.11 ± 4.51 years). Before application of individually adapted biofeedback modalities, interviews with parents and children, large scale of psychometric tests, as well as evaluations with Quantitative EEG (Mitzar, Russia) were performed. For EDR biofeedback relax plus and Inner Tunner Professional, Ultramind, UK, while for EEG biofeedback Biograph ProComp, Thought Technology LTD, Canada were applied. For somatoform problems 10 - 15 sessions of EDR biofeedback were sufficient, while for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder the number of needed sessions was 20 - 40, twice a week. Our experiences with these non-pharmacologic methods in the assessment and therapy of somatoform problems and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are quite positive, providing that biofeedback is combined with psychological support and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy. The results showed that the EDR biofeedback is more effective in the case of somatoform disorders, and the EEG biofeedback (neurofeedback) in the case of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Still, EDR biofeedback appeared to be more preferable method by young children than EEG biofeedback, either as a unique treatment or as a first step preceding the neurofeedback therapy. Key words: Electrodermal biofeedback, EEG-biofeedback, somatofoam disorders, ADHD