A pediatric outpatient clinic is full of distractions, yet children who suffer from migraine and tension headaches can learn biofeedback skills to control their pain as effectively as they can in a quieter environment.

Keith Allen, Ph.D., associate professor, pediatrics, recently replicated his previous success teaching biofeedback skills to children in a clinic setting that was less conducive to learning.

Biofeedback involves teaching children strategies to control their body’s response to environmental stresses and to pain.

It was the sixth in a series of studies on various behavioral treatments for migraine headaches that Dr. Allen has conducted since 1988. Results from this study show that biofeedback is as effective a treatment when taught in a primary care outpatient setting as when taught in the clinic at Munroe-Meyer Institute.

"We were interested in whether the treatment would be as effective in a primary care setting where our portable biofeedback equipment is less sophisticated, there are more distractions and the visits are fewer in number and length of time," Dr. Allen said.

The study also showed that the techniques used for relieving migraine pain were equally effective on children with tension headaches.

"Tension headaches are different than migraines in that the pain is often less severe, but more frequent," he said.

In his study, funded by a $7,500 Primary Care Seed Grant from UNMC, 12 children between the ages of 8 and 18 learned biofeedback skills.

The group was equally mixed with tension and migraine sufferers.

Out of the 12 children, five became headache free, four realized a significant reduction in duration and intensity of their headaches, two noticed some changes and one child did not receive relief from the techniques.