Newswise — A delegation from the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (AAPB) went to Washington, DC, April 21-22, 2005, to present a Science Forum on "Mind-Body Medicine: Improving Our Health and Performance to increase awareness and support for biofeedback. The goals were to inform Congress and administrators of Federal health insurance programs and insurance regulators about the biofeedback applications that have strong empirical support for effectiveness and evidence for cost-effectiveness, and to stir interest in supporting research initiatives for biofeedback applications that look very promising, but have not yet been fully empirically validated.
The event was organized by Dr. Jill Egeth of the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, of which AAPB is a member, and was sponsored by AAPB's Fund for the Future. The Federation is a non-profit science advocacy organization. They represent the interests of scientists who do research in the areas of behavioral, psychological, and cognitive sciences. Their efforts are focused on legislative advocacy, education, and the communication of information to scientists.
Originally scheduled for June of 2004, the event had to postpone the event because of federal closures related to Ronald Reagan's memorial services. The Forum turned out to be well worth the 10-month delay. Five biofeedback experts from AAPB presented talks on biofeedback access and reimbursement and on biofeedback applications, including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), pelvic floor disorders, asthma, and headaches. The following people went to Washington: myself, Frank Andrasik, PhD, (University of West Florida), Olafur Palsson, PsyD (University of North Carolina), Robert Whitehouse, EdD, (Colorado Center for Behavioral Health), Vincent Monastra, PhD, (FPI Attention Disorders Clinic), Paul Lehrer, PhD, (UMDNJ - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School), Steven Baskin, PhD, Past President of AAPB, and Francine Butler, PhD, Executive Director of AAPB. These speakers were joined by Dr. Margaret Chesney, Deputy Director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Dr. Peter Kaufmann, Leader of the Behavioral Medicine Research Group at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), of NIH.
On the Friday following the Forum, the delegation, visited Congressional offices to address the importance of increasing insurance coverage of biofeedback and to highlight some highly relevant applications that, if implemented properly, could have an enormous positive impact on those who suffer from conditions such as chronic pain and ADHD.
This was an auspicious time for such a mission. Because of the well-publicized findings of bad long-term effects of Cox-2 inhibitor drugs for arthritis, public wariness about taking medication is at an all-time high. Interest in complementary or alternative treatments is similarly strong.
The Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (AAPB) was founded in 1969 to promote a new understanding of biofeedback and advance the methods used in this practice. AAPB's mission is to advance the development, dissemination and utilization of knowledge about applied psychophysiology and biofeedback. For more information, visit the AAPB Web site at http://www.aapb.org, or call 303-422-8436.
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