Biofeedback on heart rate variability in cardiac rehabilitation: Practical feasibility and psycho-physiological effects

Objective Biofeedback is a self-regulation therapy by which the patient learns how to optimize the functioning of his autonomic nervous system. It has been applied to patients with various cardiovascular disorders. The purpose of this study was to investigate the practical feasibility and the psychophysiological effects of biofeedback applied to heart rate variability (HRV biofeedback) in order to increase cardiac coherence in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients participating in a cardiac rehabilitation programme.Methods and results In this randomised and controlled study, 31 CAD patients were randomly assigned to an experimental or to a control group. The experimental group participated in a programme of 10 sessions of cardiac coherence biofeedback training, in addition to the rehabilitation programme. The control group participated in the usual cardiac rehabilitation programme only. Physiological variables (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, SDNN) and psychosocial variables (anxiety, depression, ...