Chronic Anxiety Treated by Feedback-Induced Muscle Relaxation

Treatment of insomnia in cancer patients using muscle relaxation training

“…Biofeedback procedures were utilized to bring about a state of relaxation in the subject. Raskin, Johnson, and Rendestendt (1973) provided six subjects suffering from insomnia with EMG frontalis muscle feedback. Subjects received EMG feedback until they could maintain a low muscle tension criterion for 25 minutes.…”

Computers in biofeedback research and therapy

“…Furthermore, the rationale for selection of particular sites may sometimes be arbitrary (e.g., EMG recording of the dorsal muscle of the forearm to assess physiological response to test anxiety; Thompson, Griebstein, & Kuhlenschmidt, 1980), or based on unfounded assumptions (e.g., that reduction in frontalis EMG level is an indication of relaxation; Alexander, 1975). Numerous investigators have studied frontalis muscle EMG response as an indicator of anxiety or relaxation (Budzynski & Stoyva, 1969;Canter, Kondo, & Knotts, 1975;Raskin, Johnson, & Rondestvedt, 1973;Townsend, House, & Addario, 1975). However, "no actual experiment or experimental program has been undertaken to investigate the ability of a single EMG recording site (such as the forehead) to provide a valid, measurable, somatic indicator of general tension, relaxation or anxiety" (Alexander & Smith, 1979, p. 120).…”

Physiological and Psychological Effects of Alpha and Emg Feedback Training with College Drug Users a Pilot Study*

“…They were randomly allocated to three experimental groups, each containing approximately equal numbers of light, medium and heavy users. Their mean age was 18.9 years (range: [17][18][19][20][21][22] and they were all physically healthy. Volunteers taking narcotics, high regular doses of amphetamines or any drug intravenously or intramuscularly were excluded from this study.…”

“…20 (1975) alpha state resemble some of the reports offered by subjects under the influence of marihuana (26), it has been suggested that the use of alpha feedback could provide an alternative to drug use (6). Biofeedback training has also been shown to have beneficial effects on anxiety (3,10,16,21), sleep (24,25) and personality (7,8,11,23). In this pilot study, a group of college students who were regular drug users were trained in either alpha or EMG feedback to see how it would affect their drug use, sleep, anxiety levels and school results.…”