Biofeedback-based training for stress management in daily hassles: an intervention study.
BACKGROUND
The day-to-day causes of stress are called daily hassles. Daily hassles are correlated with ill health. Biofeedback (BF) is one of the tools used for acquiring stress-coping skills. However, the anatomical correlates of the effects of BF with long training periods remain unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate this.


METHODS
PARTICIPANTS WERE ASSIGNED RANDOMLY TO TWO GROUPS: the intervention group and the control group. Participants in the intervention group performed a biofeedback training (BFT) task (a combination task for heart rate and cerebral blood flow control) every day, for about 5 min once a day. The study outcomes included MRI, psychological tests (e.g., Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, and Brief Job Stress Questionnaire), and a stress marker (salivary cortisol levels) before (day 0) and after (day 28) the intervention.


RESULTS
We observed significant improvements in the psychological test scores and salivary cortisol levels in the intervention group compared to the control group. Furthermore, voxel-based morphometric analysis revealed that compared to the control group, the intervention group had significantly increased regional gray matter (GM) volume in the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex, which is an anatomical cluster that includes mainly the left hippocampus, and the left subgenual anterior cingulate cortex. The GM regions are associated with the stress response, and, in general, these regions seem to be the most sensitive to the detrimental effects of stress.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that our BFT is effective against the GM structures vulnerable to stress.
['Kotozaki|Yuka|Y|', 'Takeuchi|Hikaru|H|', 'Sekiguchi|Atsushi|A|', 'Yamamoto|Yuki|Y|', 'Shinada|Takamitsu|T|', 'Araki|Tsuyoshi|T|', 'Takahashi|Kei|K|', 'Taki|Yasuyuki|Y|', 'Ogino|Takeshi|T|', 'Kiguchi|Masashi|M|', 'Kawashima|Ryuta|R|']
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological D000328:Adult D000339:Affect D001676:Biofeedback, Psychology D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation D004311:Double-Blind Method D005260:Female D006339:Heart Rate D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D013315:Stress, Psychological D016896:Treatment Outcome D055815:Young Adult
daily hassles Biofeedback training orbitofrontal cortex hippocampus subgenual anterior cingulate cortex