Treatment of severe hemifacial spasm with biofeedback. A case study.
EMG biofeedback can shave off some muscle tension yet leave tic frequency untouched.
01Research in Context
What this study did
One adult with hemifacial spasm got EMG biofeedback.
The person watched a screen that showed tiny muscle signals.
They practiced relaxing the tense side of the face during 14 months of follow-up.
What they found
Muscle tension dropped a little while the person talked.
The twitch count stayed the same.
The change was small but still visible on the EMG trace.
How this fits with other research
Azrin et al. (1969) built the first EMG tone feedback. Bickel et al. (1984) used the same tool on a face instead of an arm.
Blanchard et al. (1979) and Yuwiler et al. (1992) also saw only tiny gains with blood-pressure and thermal biofeedback. Their pattern matches: biofeedback often relaxes muscles or pressure a bit, yet the main problem keeps ticking.
Moritz et al. (2011) got better results with a simple self-help trick for nail-biting. That study reminds us that low-tech behavioral moves can sometimes beat high-tech feedback loops.
Why it matters
If a client has tics or spasms, EMG biofeedback may calm the muscle but probably will not stop the movement. Pair it with habit-reversal or other behavioral tools for fuller change. Track both EMG numbers and real-world tic counts so you do not miss weak effects.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
A 35-year-old man with severe hemifacial spasm of 23 years' duration was treated with EMG biofeedback over five months. In addition to laboratory sessions and home sessions, the subject wore a pocket-size EMG monitor for a total of 472 hours during his daily activity. He could easily control his tic when attending to it, and also made major reductions in the frequency and EMG level when not attending (for example, during conversation) over the treatment period. At fourteen-month follow-up, two out of the three EMG measures taken during conversation were significantly lower than before treatment, but tic frequency during conversation was not. This report differs from other case reports in its careful attention to quantitative follow-up data and in the severity of the client's problem.
Behavior modification, 1984 · doi:10.1177/01454455840084007