Biofeedback treatment for epilepsy

Anti-epileptic drugs are the mainstay in the management of epilepsy. However, approximately 30% of patients continue to have seizures despite optimal drug therapy. Behavioural interventions that include biofeedback have become increasingly popular over the last 3 decades, and the results have mostly been encouraging. Biofeedback is a non-invasive behavioural treatment that enables a patient to gain volitional control over a physiological process. In epilepsy, targeted parameters for biofeedback include electroencephalographic (EEG) measures of cortical activity, such as different EEG frequencies or cortical potentials (i.e., neurofeedback), and peripheral autonomic activity, such as Galvanic Skin Response (GSR). In this review, biofeedback using Sensory Motor Rhythm (SMR), Slow Cortical Potentials (SCP), and GSR are discussed. SMR biofeedback was established in the 1970s and is the most prominent methodology for biofeedback treatment of epilepsy in published literature. The technique is now regaining its popularity. SCP biofeedback was introduced in the 1990s. In contrast to SMR biofeedback, which modulates the frequency components of EEG, SCP biofeedback focuses on the regulation of potential changes (amplitude of DC shift). The clinical trials conducted using SCP biofeedback were larger than those conducted using SMR biofeedback, and their overall outcomes were promising. GSR biofeedback is a relatively new methodology in its application to epilepsy and focuses on the modulation of electrodermal measures of sympathetic activity. Compared to the neurofeedback approach, GSR biofeedback is much easier to implement, and evidence suggests that its clinical benefits can be achieved more rapidly. Although the biofeedback treatment may never achieve the status of an alternative to pharmacotherapy for epilepsy, current research findings strongly suggest that biofeedback has the potential to become a potent adjunctive non-pharmacological approach to reduce seizure frequency in patient with drug-resistant epilepsy. Further research, especially a well-controlled large clinical trial, is necessary and anticipated.

Brain Nerve. 2011 Apr;63(4):385-92. Nagai Y, Matsuura M. Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre.