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Biofeedback has been in existence since 1950. It developed out of several fields, including learning theory, behavior therapy, biomedical engineering, stress research, and psychophysiology. The major professional organization in this area is the Association of Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (AAPB). The title of this organization reflects the organization's use of biofeedback and other therapy methods, which emphasizes a broader scope of this field compared to a narrow focus on only biofeedback methods.

Biofeedback is defined as “a group of therapeutic procedures that uses electronic or electromechanical instruments to accurately measure, process, and feed back to persons and their therapists, information with educational and reinforcing properties about their neuromuscular and autonomic activity, both normal and abnormal, in the form of analog or binary, auditory, and/or visual feedback signals.” Biofeedback then is the use of machines to provide concrete feedback to the...

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  • Middaugh SJ, Pawlick K (2002) Biofeedback and behavioral treatment of persistent pain in the older adult: a review and a study. Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback 27(3):185–202

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  • Schwartz MS, Andrasik F (eds) (2003) Biofeedback: a practitioner's guide, 3rd ed. Guilford Press, New York

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© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Scott, T.J.L. (2008). Biofeedback. In: Loue, S.J., Sajatovic, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Aging and Public Health. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-33754-8_53

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-33754-8_53

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

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