Biofeedback Has Therapeutic Effects on Asthma, Although Additional Research Is Needed to Document Specificity

Abstract

Asthma is a common disorder leading to significant disability and healthcare cost throughout the world. Although medical treatment is usually highly effective in controlling it, asthma medicines often have high costs and attendant side effects. Biofeedback is an inexpensive noninvasive alternative with minimal side effects. This paper reviews evidence for two validated biofeedback treatments for treating asthma, heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB), and muscle relaxation with surface electromyographic biofeedback. In multiple studies, although most of them are of modest size, both methods have clinically meaningful results, often allowing decreases in the use of steroid medication. Further research is needed to prove which specific components of HRVB are responsible for clinical effects, and to determine asthma populations that can best benefit from these methods. Despite demonstrated effectiveness, few insurance schemes reimburse for biofeedback, and national guidelines consider it only as worthy of further investigation. Funding for the requisite large-scale clinical trials remains lacking, creating a limbo-like status quo for these useful methods.