Orientation for UW Medical Students Visiting

Psychophysiological assessments and biofeedback based interventions for disorders whose main symptom of interest is chronic pain can be highly effective and useful in the clinical environment. The evidence supporting the effectiveness of psychophysiological assessments and interventions for phantom limb pain, upper and lower back pain, non-cardiac chest pain, and pelvic floor pain disorders is reviewed to provide examples of how these techniques are applied to problems having differing etiologies. There is a dearth of controlled studies in this area so the supporting evidence is not as strong as it might be given the clear clinical utility of the techniques. The evidence from formal studies shows that efficacy ranges from efficacious (e.g., irritable bowel syndrome, migraine and tension headaches) through probably efficacious (e.g. back pain, phantom limb pain) and possibly efficacious (e.g., pelvic pain, Raynauds syndrome) to not empirically supported (e.g. complex regional pain syndrome / reflex sympathetic dystrophy).