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Biofeedback As An Alternative Treatment For Raynaud's Disease, Marianne Patricia Strawk

Graduate Theses

A case of Raynaud's disease, a functional disorder of the vascular system resulting in the hands and feet being abnormally sensitive to the vasoconstrictor influences of cold and emotional disturbance, was treated with thermal biofeedback in order to train the subject to increase her finger temperature and thus reduce the onset of Raynaud's attacks. In addition to biofeedback training to raise digital skin temperature, the experimental conditions included: no-feedback control phases to control for expectancy effects, and relaxation training combined with biofeedback to provide the subject with specific strategies to use when raising finger temperature. It was hypothesized that: 1) …