During the 1980’s our laboratory studied the effects of biofeedback in individuals with primary Raynaud’s. Deficiencies of traditional treatments stimulated research on more safe and effective behavioral methods. In our laboratory, using temperature biofeedback, patients with primary Raynaud’s were able to significantly reduce symptom frequency and maintain improvement for 1 year. Our biofeedback training was able to reduce symptom frequency in patients by 66-92%.

Training involved a light or tone which was activated by a change in skin temperature. This information was then used by the patient to control the desired response of increased skin temperature. The optimum number of training sessions was found to be 10 biweekly sessions. Each session involved a 16 minute baseline or adaptation period followed by 16 minutes of training. The goals of biofeedback training are a) to be able to control skin temperature, b) to retain this desired response over time, and c) to be able to produce the response in the natural environment (outside the laboratory) without the feedback stimulus.

Other methods of biofeedback which were found to be less effective in controlling skin temperature in Raynaud’s patients are: autogenic training, frontalis EMG feedback, and simple instructions.

It should be noted that our temperature biofeedback studies did not report the same success for those individuals with secondary Raynaud’s for reasons unknown.