The Daily Telegraph, feb 7 1995

Computer software using biofeedback technology is being used by doctors in London to treat patients for stress-related illnesses. The software teaches people relaxation techniques to reduce their stress levels. A version that people can use at home will be commercially available later this year. Biofeedback relies on the physiological fact that changes in heart rate, blood pressure and breathing affect the electrical resistance of the skin. It has been used in clinical practice for several decades. The psychiatrist Gustav Jung used biofeedback 80 years ago to measure sub-conscious responses to word stimulation; it is also the principle behind the modern lie detector. The new software called RelaxPlus, combines biofeedback with relaxation exercises, tutorials and games on the computer. An infrared receiver connected to a personal computer monitors a transmitter attached to the patients hand, sending a small electrical current along one finger and down another. As the patient relaxes or tenses, the on-screen graphics change, providing rewards when an appropriate state of relaxation is reached. Doctors can compare the progress of different patients, and use graphic displays that are appropriate to the disorder they are treating. A new version, to be launched in March, will cater for the needs of GPs, permitting them to create their own procedures for the treatment of psychological and psychosomatic illnesses. Studies using RelaxPlus are in progress at the Royal Free, St Bartholomew’s and Great Ormond Street hospitals. At the Royal Free, Dr Owen Epstein, a gastroenterologist, is conducting a 10 week pilot study using RelaxPlus to treat patients with chronic irritable bowel syndrome, a recognised stress-related disorder. The patients involved in the study, assisted by Dr Epstein´s research nurse, Claudia Clayman, use their thoughts to take a rollercoaster ride on a graphical representation of their bowels, with the location of their symptoms marked as fire for pain or bubbles for distension. Patients use mind power to quell the on-screen fires and burst the bubbles, hoping to relieve their physical symptoms in the process. Until now, expensive hypnotherapy has been the only option for patients whom drugs have not helped. Ms Clayman says some patients have found that the pain has eased. However, she cautions: "It cannot help everyone. It depends on how much effort they put into learning how to relax. You have got to do it for at least 10 minutes every day." The Medical Research Council says biofeedback is a valid relaxation technique, but adds it is not necessarily any better than other forms of relaxation, such as listening to music, although there is some indication that for some people the reward factor may help. "Certainly biofeedback is a experimentally observable phenomenon; it is not quackery," says a MRC spokesman. "At the very least, if it is actually making someone sit down and relax then it is not a bad thing". I was impressed when I tested preview copy of the consumer version of RelaxPlus, which goes on sale this autumn and will coast about 200. You start with exercise designed to release tension. The on-screen instructions tell you to relax, and breathe deeply and quickly. Then you are told to relax and move your feet vigorously, relax again and clench you buttocks. As you comply with the instructions, a graph charts your ski resistance and, by extension, monitors your relaxation. The software can also be used by two people at the same time Partners can connect a finger each and make the circuit by holding hands and relaxing together. After going through the relaxation procedure, you play a game In one, called Evolve, you content plate a fish on screen. If you are relaxed, it swims right, if you are tense, it moves left. If you relax further, it mutates into a mermaid. As you become gradually more relaxed, she comes ashore, becomes an angel, and eventually changes into a star. You are rewarded with a screen message: "Congratulations, you are now a star." If you get an intrusive dark thought, however your angel can become a fish.

Return