Chronic pain can be described as pain that lasts long enough, or is intense enough, to affect a person's normal activities and well being. It may continue over a long period of time or come and go. Any area of the body can be affected.

Chronic Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience that starts with an injury or illness. The incoming pain signals trigger specialized nerve cells in your brain to tell your muscles how to respond.

With chronic pain, the pain signals keep firing up the nervous system for months, even years, either continually or as flare-ups. In many cases, the response is needless since the initial injury or illness is over. Or the cause may be an ongoing condition like arthritis, an illness like cancer or unknown. Whatever the cause, chronic pain often is intractable. The cause of the pain cannot be removed or treated, and the pain itself cannot be relieved. Unrelieved pain creates a vicious cycle. It can make people unable to work, concentrate, socialize, eat properly, or sleep. That in turn may lead to depression, anxiety and frustration, which accentuates the pain and leaves the patient even less able to cope with the normal activities of life.

How can biofeedback help relieve chronic pain?

Psychological treatment for pain runs the gamut from relaxation training to biofeedback to psychotherapy. Anything, in fact, that allows you to reduce stress and muscle tension, such as meditation, hypnosis, or just listening to music, will help relieve pain.

Some patients find they can learn to control pain conditions involving tense muscles, like tension headaches or low back pain, using biofeedback techniques. sEMG monitors are used to identify areas of high muscle tension. sEMG monitors can help a patient reduce high tension in the specific area by showing the actual electrical signal in the muscle and helping a patient reduce the tension.

People who receive Biofeedback training for chronic pain usually learn a variety of self-regulation techniques, which they practice on a regular basis including muscle relaxation and muscle learning therapy.

Biofeedback equipment used to reduce chronic pain

Biofreeze Pain Relief Gel
Fibromyalgia is a form of chronic pain which is a disorder marked by widespread pain and "tender points" throughout the body, accompanied by sleep disturbance, cognitive defects, reduced energy, and a variety of other symptoms.

Biofreeze is used to reduce muscle tension and pain in strained or tense muscles especially in those suffering from Fibromyalgia. A small amount of gel applied to a specific location can be used to help reduce pain in that area.

Myotrac / U-Control sEMG
A central component of chronic pain management is the use of a portable surface electromyograph (sEMG) such as the U-Control or Myotrac to help identify work patterns contributing to unhealthy behavior.

Both the Myotrac and U-Control provide auditory feedback from electrodes placed on the skin. The electrodes monitor the bioelectrical activity produced by the muscle when it contracts, producing a signal that is represented by a low pitch. The tenser the muscles, the higher the bioelectrical activity, which causes the monitor to emit a higher pitch. This signals that the user needs to relax the muscles being monitored. Once the muscle relaxes, the sEMG returns to its normal level, helping the user identify what is required to maintain relaxed muscles and reduce pain.