Heart Rate Variability
Another application in biofeedback is through Heart Rate Variability
training, or HRV biofeedback. This newer technique aims
to improve the variability and dominant rhythms in heart activity.
Scientific study of HRV biofeedback is fairly recent, and only in
the past ten years did it become possible to train people to change
the variability in heart rhythms. Higher heart rate variability is
correlated to an optimal modulation between the two branches of
the autonomic nervous system, resulting in a regulated balance.
Due to findings that symptoms of depression are linked to attenuated
heart rate variability, whereby increased sympathetic tone, decreased
parasympathetic activity, and a “blunted” physiological
response to stress is observed in depressed patients (La Rovere
et al., 1998; Siepmann et al., 2008), the therapeutic effects of
HRV biofeedback in this patient population has meaningful
clinical implications. The ultimate aim of HRV biofeedback is to
increase heart rate variability through practicing one’s identified
“resonant breathing.” This is achieved through several parallel
training pathways, such as to coach patients to 1) learn how to
relax physically and emotionally, 2) reduce anxious thoughts and
negative emotions (by what I have coined as “mental discipline”
through mindfulness techniques), and 3) engage in smooth full diaphragmatic
breathing. Patients learn to breathe in synchrony with
their own heart rate variability, resulting in an awareness of what
their resonant breathing pattern is. According to Karavidas et al.
(2006), each individual has an optimum resonant frequency at
which their heart rate variability is the greatest, and this resonant
frequency, measured by biofeedback instruments as a live-feed
for patients to track, is the training in which patients learn how
to trace their HRV with their breathing. Current scientific studies
are researching how autonomic nervous system regulation through
HRV biofeedback contributes to improvement in other physical
and psychological conditions, such as anger management, anxiety
disorders, asthma, cardiovascular conditions, chronic obstructive
pulmonary disorder, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue,
and chronic pain (Moss & Shaffer, 2009).
Rosalynn Carter Former First Lady
Posted: May 6, 2010
Solving the Mental Health Crisis for Our Children
When I was a child in Plains, everyone knew everyone else in town. Church and school were the center of our community and were strong and positive influences on my life and those of my siblings and friends. So much has changed since then. The social fabric I took for granted no longer exists. On May 6–National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day–we need to acknowledge the fact that too many children in our nation are left to struggle with a whole host of stressful circumstances–violence, divorce, poverty, substance abuse and war, to mention just a few, without effective supports.
Children in foster care are especially vulnerable; they have already been exposed to trauma by virtue of being brought into the protective services system in the first place. Approximately 800,000 children are reported in the foster care system nationwide at any one time. Anywhere from 40 to 85 percent of kids in foster care have mental health problems–a staggering number. At a recent symposium at The Carter Center, a poised young woman in medical school described her early life as a foster child. “When I left my mom to live in a foster home,” Angela told us, “I was very, very upset because nobody told me why I left. They could not tell me anything. I was 6, so if they had said anything, I would not have understood it. I have been in different foster homes and group homes. I have been in mental institutions …
“It was really hard growing up, having to fight in different group homes and foster homes. One of the things that used to bother me the most was one of the girls always got to go home on holidays, and I wished I had a family that I could go home to. That used to eat me up inside so much.”
Children growing up in these circumstances are at great risk, but like Angela, they are also remarkably resilient. Indeed, today we know much about how to cultivate resilience in all children. Carl Bell, MD, President and CEO, Community Mental Health Council, Director of Public and Community Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago who introduced Angela at our symposium, has also been one of the field’s foremost advocates for promoting resiliency.. He speaks passionately about the need to shift our focus from a deficit-based model of child development, where the goal is to overcome problems, to a strength-based model that emphasizes support. Carl puts it this way: “Most of life is about attitude and perception.” Children are best served when we help them develop the skills they need to frame whatever challenges and obstacles they may meet in a positive paradigm.
Carl has identified a number of characteristics present in resilient children–the same characteristics that enabled Angela to overcome her troubled childhood. These include having a sense of purpose in life, confidence in one’s ability to control any given situation, compassion for others, a belief in the fundamental goodness of people, and the energy and resourcefulness to make things happen. John Gates, PhD, former director of the Mental Health Program at The Carter Center, describes them as “characteristics that enable children to work well, play well, love well, and expect well.”
In Minnesota, an innovative program called Check and Connect, developed by the University of Minnesota’s Institute on Community Integration in Minneapolis, uses strategies such as social skills training and relationship building to increase student engagement with school and reduce dropout rates.. The program was initially designed to meet the needs of students with behavioral and learning challenges by pairing students with a patient, caring adult mentor. Studies have demonstrated over and over the positive effects achieved by this program, yet because of funding constraints it remains only a demonstration project.
Why is it that we are so slow to take what we know works and make it available to communities all across the country? We can and must do more. We are all familiar with the adage “A stitch in time saves nine.” When it comes to children, this proverb couldn’t be more apt. If budding issues are not adequately addressed early on, they become bigger and more often devastating problems later in life. Mental health problems during childhood are often precursors to delinquency, substance use, smoking, risky sexual behavior, and school failure. Our inattention is causing unnecessary pain, trauma, and even death. The wasted potential is immeasurable.
Our children are our most precious resources. And we cannot delay, for as my good friend and our nation’s surgeon general while we were in the White House, the late Dr. Julius Richmond observed, “Every day that we do not intervene with effective programs, we are losing remarkable human potential. And every child whose potential is wasted is an incredible loss to the nation.”
excerpted from http://www.sierratucson.com/pdf/Progress-WinterSpring2010web.pdf
Sierra Tuscon “Progress” Newsletter
Heart Rate Variability
Another application in biofeedback is through Heart Rate Variability
training, or HRV biofeedback. This newer technique aims
to improve the variability and dominant rhythms in heart activity.
Scientific study of HRV biofeedback is fairly recent, and only in
the past ten years did it become possible to train people to change
the variability in heart rhythms. Higher heart rate variability is
correlated to an optimal modulation between the two branches of
the autonomic nervous system, resulting in a regulated balance.
Due to findings that symptoms of depression are linked to attenuated
heart rate variability, whereby increased sympathetic tone, decreased
parasympathetic activity, and a “blunted” physiological
response to stress is observed in depressed patients (La Rovere
et al., 1998; Siepmann et al., 2008), the therapeutic effects of
HRV biofeedback in this patient population has meaningful
clinical implications. The ultimate aim of HRV biofeedback is to
increase heart rate variability through practicing one’s identified
“resonant breathing.” This is achieved through several parallel
training pathways, such as to coach patients to 1) learn how to
relax physically and emotionally, 2) reduce anxious thoughts and
negative emotions (by what I have coined as “mental discipline”
through mindfulness techniques), and 3) engage in smooth full diaphragmatic
breathing. Patients learn to breathe in synchrony with
their own heart rate variability, resulting in an awareness of what
their resonant breathing pattern is. According to Karavidas et al.
(2006), each individual has an optimum resonant frequency at
which their heart rate variability is the greatest, and this resonant
frequency, measured by biofeedback instruments as a live-feed
for patients to track, is the training in which patients learn how
to trace their HRV with their breathing. Current scientific studies
are researching how autonomic nervous system regulation through
HRV biofeedback contributes to improvement in other physical
and psychological conditions, such as anger management, anxiety
disorders, asthma, cardiovascular conditions, chronic obstructive
pulmonary disorder, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue,
and chronic pain (Moss & Shaffer, 2009).
http://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_brown_says_play_is_more_than_fun_it_s_vital.html
Excellent 26 minute video exploring important of play in development, including animal play and adult play.
Rosalynn Carter Former First Lady
Posted: May 6, 2010
Solving the Mental Health Crisis for Our Children
When I was a child in Plains, everyone knew everyone else in town. Church and school were the center of our community and were strong and positive influences on my life and those of my siblings and friends. So much has changed since then. The social fabric I took for granted no longer exists. On May 6–National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day–we need to acknowledge the fact that too many children in our nation are left to struggle with a whole host of stressful circumstances–violence, divorce, poverty, substance abuse and war, to mention just a few, without effective supports.
Children in foster care are especially vulnerable; they have already been exposed to trauma by virtue of being brought into the protective services system in the first place. Approximately 800,000 children are reported in the foster care system nationwide at any one time. Anywhere from 40 to 85 percent of kids in foster care have mental health problems–a staggering number. At a recent symposium at The Carter Center, a poised young woman in medical school described her early life as a foster child. “When I left my mom to live in a foster home,” Angela told us, “I was very, very upset because nobody told me why I left. They could not tell me anything. I was 6, so if they had said anything, I would not have understood it. I have been in different foster homes and group homes. I have been in mental institutions …
“It was really hard growing up, having to fight in different group homes and foster homes. One of the things that used to bother me the most was one of the girls always got to go home on holidays, and I wished I had a family that I could go home to. That used to eat me up inside so much.”
Children growing up in these circumstances are at great risk, but like Angela, they are also remarkably resilient. Indeed, today we know much about how to cultivate resilience in all children. Carl Bell, MD, President and CEO, Community Mental Health Council, Director of Public and Community Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago who introduced Angela at our symposium, has also been one of the field’s foremost advocates for promoting resiliency.. He speaks passionately about the need to shift our focus from a deficit-based model of child development, where the goal is to overcome problems, to a strength-based model that emphasizes support. Carl puts it this way: “Most of life is about attitude and perception.” Children are best served when we help them develop the skills they need to frame whatever challenges and obstacles they may meet in a positive paradigm.
Carl has identified a number of characteristics present in resilient children–the same characteristics that enabled Angela to overcome her troubled childhood. These include having a sense of purpose in life, confidence in one’s ability to control any given situation, compassion for others, a belief in the fundamental goodness of people, and the energy and resourcefulness to make things happen. John Gates, PhD, former director of the Mental Health Program at The Carter Center, describes them as “characteristics that enable children to work well, play well, love well, and expect well.”
In Minnesota, an innovative program called Check and Connect, developed by the University of Minnesota’s Institute on Community Integration in Minneapolis, uses strategies such as social skills training and relationship building to increase student engagement with school and reduce dropout rates.. The program was initially designed to meet the needs of students with behavioral and learning challenges by pairing students with a patient, caring adult mentor. Studies have demonstrated over and over the positive effects achieved by this program, yet because of funding constraints it remains only a demonstration project.
Why is it that we are so slow to take what we know works and make it available to communities all across the country? We can and must do more. We are all familiar with the adage “A stitch in time saves nine.” When it comes to children, this proverb couldn’t be more apt. If budding issues are not adequately addressed early on, they become bigger and more often devastating problems later in life. Mental health problems during childhood are often precursors to delinquency, substance use, smoking, risky sexual behavior, and school failure. Our inattention is causing unnecessary pain, trauma, and even death. The wasted potential is immeasurable.
Our children are our most precious resources. And we cannot delay, for as my good friend and our nation’s surgeon general while we were in the White House, the late Dr. Julius Richmond observed, “Every day that we do not intervene with effective programs, we are losing remarkable human potential. And every child whose potential is wasted is an incredible loss to the nation.”