Teaching children relaxation skills may help them reduce the frequency and
severity of migraine headaches. In a recent study at Cincinnati Children's'
Hospital Medical Center, 10 girls and 10 boys with a history of migraine
headache were given a single hour-long biofeedback-assisted relaxation training
(BART); the results were encouraging and suggest that BART, combined with
standard medication, can be an important tool in helping children deal with
migraine.
By allowing us to actually see the results of our efforts, biofeedback can
help us learn to control bodily processes that we don't normally think of
ourselves as controlling, such as heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure,
and skin temperature. All of these are associated with how relaxed or tense we
are. We all know that when we're tense, for example, our heart and breathing
rates accelerate. Our feet and hands become cold when we are nervous or tense.
It may come as a surprise to learn that we can influence these bodily processes
and, in so doing, reduce tension and bring on a state of relaxation. Because we
are not accustomed to controlling such bodily processes, it is a skill we must
learn and some people learn these skills more easily than others. Biofeedback is
a tool that can help in this learning process. It uses instruments to monitor
things like heart rate or skin temperature and provides a visual representation
(such as a meter or a graph) so that the individual can see the results of his
or her efforts. For example, if a person is trying to reduce heart rate, an
electrocardiograph can show the effectiveness of such efforts. Or, a simple
meter that registers the temperature of the fingers can provide feedback for
those attempting to raise peripheral body temperature (PBT).
In the Cincinnati study, children with a history of migraine received a
single training session in relaxation techniques. These included deep breathing,
progressive muscle relaxation, and guided imagery. A biofeedback device
measuring PBT was used as an aid to learning. For the first two weeks after the
training, the children were encouraged to practice these skills using an audio
tape three or more times a week and at any time that they felt a headache coming
on. Thereafter, they were instructed to practice on their own. Researchers
measured the children's PBT prior to the training, during the training, and
again at a follow-up visit, two to five months later. They assessed children's
perception of their headaches and their quality of life. They also asked
children to report on school absences due to migraine.
The results were encouraging: Children were able to significantly increase
PBT and this was directly related to a decrease in headache frequency. From
training to the follow-up visit, headache frequency decreased from 12.9 to 9.7
days/month, and headache duration went down from 6.9 to 5.2 hours. At the end of
the study, 85 percent of parents reported that their children were functioning
"better" as a result of the training. And the number of children who reported
missing school as a result of migraine went from seven at the outset of the
study to just two after 5 months.
