Growth and development of biofeedback: a bibliographic analysis.

A computerized search was performed, and a bibliography was prepared on the subject of biofeedback covering the years from 1964 to 1985. Growth curves were produced for various publication media. The search produced references to 2,431 journal articles, 102 books, 79 popular magazine articles, and 551 doctoral dissertations. The journal articles were sorted according to the country of publication, language, and primary topic of the journal. Citations were found from 35 countries, written in 18 languages. All the media studied showed a period of rapid growth during the early to middle 1970s, but there was a tendency for leveling off or slight decline during the early 1980s. Publication of articles in medical journals has shown the greatest growth, and more articles are published yearly in medical journals than in journals of any other discipline or all specialty journals combined. Publication in psychological journals has shown a decline since 1977. Dental, nursing, and educational journals have shown a low rate of publication of biofeedback articles, indicating little or no growth.