Abstract
The authors present a case of 51-years old female who has been suffering from a depressed mood and peripheral sensations of coolness due to SMON disease. In order to improve the pheral skin temperature through biofeedback and instrumental learning has been cited in literatures as a clinical tool for the control of migraine headaches and as a possible approach to Raynaud's disease. Two sensitive thermisters were mounted on the patient's toes. She was given light and meter feedback information to produce higher skin temperatures in the left foot compared to the right foot. Each training session consisted of two 20-min. trials which were separated by a 10-min. rest period. After 3 weeks of treatment, the patient's basal skin temperature, as measured on the left toe, increased from 23.1°to 29.5℃. The temperature change in the right toe was only 0.2℃ (30.2-30.0℃). The temperature difference between the two feet decreased from 7.1° to 0.5℃. In addition, she reporated that for the first time in 3 years, she had sensations of warmth in the feet. More than one year after treatment, the patient reported on continued relief from cool sensations. Persuasive though this case is, it will be too hasty to conclude that biofeedback is the sole therapeutic approach to the elimination of coolness of the feet. Carefully controlled studies would bring for the contributions to the treatment of peripheral vascular disorders, which could prove precise precise effectiveness of biofeedback training.
