Abstract
Non-ulcer dyspepsia(NUD) are functional gastrointestinal disorders with a variety of symptoms, which typically include upper abdominal symptoms(epigastric discomfort or pain, early satiety, epigastric fullness, nausea postprandial vomiting and anorexia), occurring without any diagnosable physical cause. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of biofeedback(BF) treatment on functional gastrointestinal disorders. The subjects for this study were 3 NUD out-patients(2 females and 1 male, mean age 19 years, range 14-25 years). Specific BF treatment by electrogastrography(EGG) which teaches a patient to control gastric motility with normal rhythm was used to those NUD patients. EGG measures gastric electrical activity via cutaneous electrodes applied to the epigastric region. The signals were also changed to a EGG waveform on the cathode-ray tube(CRT) by the personal computer(NEC : PC-9801) for the visual feedback to the patients. During the BF training, patients were instructed to pay close attention to feedback and to try to change the EGG waveform to 3cpm normal rhythm. Each training session consisted of a baseline resting for 20 minutes, and followed by the BF training period of 20 minutes. This study was carried out once a week for ten sessions. In one of three NUD patients, who was subjected to a gastric emptying study using the acetaminophen method, the initial gastric emptying was delayed and had returned to normal after ten sessions of EGG-BF treatment. There were not remarkable changes in STAI (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) of pre- and post-treatment periods for those NUD patients. In this study, the appearance rate of abnormal EGG rhythm at pre-treatment baseline was more than 60% in all NUD patients. However, the normal 3 cpm pattern increased with reduction of upper abdominal symptoms in all patients throughout the ten EGG-BF sessions. These results suggest that the BF training may serve as one of the effective therapies for functional gastrointestinal disorders.
