What did this study find?
This meta-analysis pooled twenty-one studies covering 1,062 patients with chronic back pain who received biofeedback training. Pain reduction reached a moderate effect size that held at eight-month follow-up, with smaller but measurable gains in depression and disability. The pooled trials used varied protocols, which limits how precisely results transfer to any single method.
What are the details of this record?
- Full citation
- Sielski R, Rief W, Glombiewski JA. Efficacy of Biofeedback in Chronic back Pain: a Meta-Analysis. Int J Behav Med. 2017.
- Authors
- Sielski R, Rief W, Glombiewski JA
- Study design
- Meta-analysis
- Sample size and population
- 1,062 patients with chronic back pain
- Evidence grade
- Grade B+ on the BioReg grading scale
- Reported findings
- Meta-analysis of 21 studies (1,062 patients). Significant effect size for pain reduction (g = 0.60) stable at 8-month follow-up. Also effective for depression (g = 0.40) and disability (g = 0.49).
- DOI
- No DOI recorded
- PubMed
- PMID 27307013
- Related categories
- Chronic Pain (category grade A-)
A positive PEMF study is not evidence for a specific device unless the signal parameters studied, frequency, intensity, waveform, and exposure duration, are reasonably comparable to what that device produces. Where this record does not list those parameters, the source report did not publish them. See the grading methodology. Library last reviewed 2026-08-27.