Biodesensitization: biofeedback-controlled systematic desensitization of the stress response to infant crying

Infant crying can be a source of parental stress both psychologically and physiologically and also may be an antecedent to physical child abuse or neglect. Biodesensitization is a new therapeutic technique that allows people to control the source of stress and develop self-control over their physiological responses to the stress-eliciting stimuli. Randomly assigned between three groups, 15 female participants were either given EEG biofeedback pretraining without stress, pretraining while listening to infant crying, or no stress management pretraining while listening to crying. After the pretraining manipulation all participants had biodesensitization training while listening to infant crying. Compared to control participants who were habituated to crying, stress management training significantly reduced the EEG cortical arousal as well as perceived arousal, and anxiety associated with listening to infant crying. The shift in participants' EEG power spectrum produced by infant crying was significantly correlated with perceived arousal and this relationship was strengthened after biofeedback training. In conjunction with other research, the experimental results suggest that stress management training may help ameliorate an aversive response to infant crying and possibly prevent child abuse as a response to physiological hyperreactivity.