EEG Neurofeedback

[Bernard]

I gathered a lot of information on EEG Neurofeedback for epilepsy (http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23). I don't know why it isn't more well known among mainstream doctors, but it is worth investigating.

[nopain]

Who knows. Doctors learn what they learn in Med school and are not very quick to accept things outside of their Education.

Who knows that Thermography is a great tool for brest examination and no radiation and non invasive.

Who knows about UVBI?

There are so many treatments and therapies in use around the World that just go completely ignored by "mainstream" medicine. Isn't it interesting that Billions of Dollars are thrown at Drug development in the search for a "cure" for cancer yet very little is being done to protect the American Food supply from contamination by Food Additives, Preservatives, Pesticides, Artificial Sweetners, Hydrogenated Fats and Oils. The air we breathe is polluted in most cities. The levels of stress we place on ourselves to afford a home which is not out of reach for many (but they get the stress of paying the additional taxes now that "values" have risen). So many PREVENTATIVE measures can be taken and they are completely side stepped while the search for the "cure" continues.

I could rant and rave at how expensive medical care (is that an oxymoron) has become and how poor the delivery of services has become. You can read the WHO report as well as I can. The USA is not exactly leading the way.

Billions spent and more cancer than ever.

Hello, whether you believe in God or not it's not important to believing in the "wisdom" of food and natural treatments.

So the only way to get Natural (i.e. Alternative) treatment into the open is to start frequenting practitioners and don't frequent allopaths unless trauma is involved. Dr. William Wong makes an interesting case for this. He states that Naturopaths get the stage 4 cancer patients then they do everything they can to help them. And when they die they are blamed. It should be the other way around. Seek the Natural Treatment first, let the body have a chance to heal itself before it is bombarded with Toxic Chemicals.

Rant over.

[Happyman]

EEG Nerofeedback is a great way to treat the depression and fear that accompanys epilepsy. I think that it helped keep me seizure free for 5 years 3 months.

[Bernard]

Thanks for the feedback Happyman. I post about EEG neurofeedback frequently on various epilepsy forums trying to get the word out but don't encounter very many others who have even heard of it, much less tried it.

How long did you practice the neurofeedback (ie. have sessions) before you noticed some benefit? It was really subtle with my wife. We almost quit 3 months into it because it didn't seem like it was doing any good. 2 months later, it was like a miracle.

[Fioter]

Took me about 25-30 sessions to begin to see a reduction in the spiky-ness of the eeg. I agree it can be discouraging to see nothing happening for 3 months plus, but isn't it great when you realize you can now control things and actually begin to see the SMR rhythm. Has only been a few months since beginning of NFB; had an aura once since then, managed to end it by doing the same stuff that is done in an NFB session; took a while and some effort though. Heard from other people "regular" cases take about 75 sessions altogether, then refreshers are possibly needed a few times a year. Am also finding shorter, 10-20 min sessions work best; this is hard work and anything longer than 20 mins seems to make the brain tired and beginning to not care about which way the feedback goes.

[Fioter]

In response to NOpain's message, neurofeedback may be way too cheap of a treatment compared to "traditional" treatments for the medical establishment to bring it into the mainstream. Who wants to develop a modality where a patient can potentially greatly improve or be cured for $5000 or less and be done with it? A major point about NFB is that it requires a finite number of sessions, be they 20, 50 or 100 so once you make a certain amount of progress, the benefits are theoretically life-long and you should not typically need to continue with further sessions. For the patient the bad thing is insurance doesn't usually pay for neurofeedback so the money has to come out of pocket but for an insurance company, if it did pay, it would be peanuts compared to the costs of long-term AED use.

Another reason is unless neurofeedback machines have the potential to be blockbusters, big medical device producers, like Boston Scientific or J&J don't have much of an incentive to develop and market them. Actually J&J does have an NFB machine on the market but there are a lot of other brands, and the technology is not that patent-protectable. Finally, the effectiveness of neurofeedback does not necessarily depend much on exactly what machine it is being done on. As for neurofeedback as a process, it is no more patentable than psychoanalysis, or driving...

Neurofeedback does take skill and customization to get the most out of it for each patient. In a situation where clients pay out of pocket and there is only so much they can be charged, and where the mainstream medical establishment is not exactly fond of this treatment, the quality of practising NFB professionals may not be as high as needed. It doesn't help either that some of them have to frame their practices in peak performance or hippy-flavored terms to market themselves to more people.

We should also conisder that well known medical schools have various research and financial affiliations with pharmaceutical companies and naturally end up with a bias toward overmedicating. Not to mention other financial incentives. Here is a recent article in Business Week that adds to some of my points:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_22/b3986016.htm?chan=search

[Bernard]

I've updated my page on EEG neurofeedback (http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/index.php?p=eeg-neurofeedback) for my chart of alternative treatments. The AAPB (http://www.aapb.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1) is making slow progress in pushing it forward.

[RobinN]

My daughter has been doing EEG Neurofeedback for a few months now, and it has greatly reduced the number of Tonic Clonic seizures she has been having. Prior to NFB she was having about 5-6 a month. Now she is down to one (during a specific week of the month) and this is only after 20 sessions.

Her cognitive abilities are greatly improved, as can be seen in her grades at school.

I have been overjoyed at the results.

[RobinN]

Six months later, and my daughter is almost considered controlled.
Neurofeedback continues, as does the nutritional changes, and supplements for brain health.

She is not taking any meds at this time.

[painfree3]

I gathered a lot of information on EEG Neurofeedback for epilepsy (http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23). I don't know why it isn't more well known among mainstream doctors, but it is worth investigating.

Thanks for the information. Another Site with good Neurofeedback information
is Round Earth Publishing:
http://round-earth.com/Neurofeedback-Info.html