ADD/ADHD
People with ADD can have a variety of symptoms. They can be easily distracted, impulsive, and inattentive. However, ADD is not laziness or a psychological problem — it’s a brain problem. Doctors know ADD is not laziness; that’s why they prescribe medications. Unlike medication, Neurofeedback trains the brain, resulting in significant improvement in ADHD/ADD symptoms. With Neurofeedback, people can increase self-control and attention. According to health professionals who use Neurofeedback in their practices, many clients with ADD/ADHD learn to increase focus, reduce impulsivity, and manage their behavior when they train with Neurofeedback on a consistent basis.
Evidence-Based Information on the Clinical Use of Neurofeedback for ADHD Tais S. Moriyama, Guilherme Polanczyk, Arthur Caye, Tobias Banaschewski, Daniel Brandeis, Luis A. Rohde
Anxiety
Anxiety sufferers are often overwhelmed, exhausted, and stressed out. Some can’t concentrate due to their intense internal focus. Others obsess about specific things. Anxiety is easily detected if someone appears outwardly nervous. At other times, anxious people can appear calm but their brain seems to never quiet down. They can’t stop thinking. The constant internal chatter can get so bad that it interrupts their sleeping and steals their quality of life. They don’t live in the present, they constantly worry about the future or live in the past. Helping people learn to calm or quiet themselves is by far the best and most effective solution for anxiety. Learning to decrease anxiety gives sufferers hope as they take control of their lives. Biofeedback and EEG Neurofeedback are two of the quickest and fastest ways to teach people to learn to help themselves, and it’s easy to learn. These technologies have been used for many years with solid, proven results. It’s true, one can learn how to decrease anxiety and remain calmer with Neurofeedback.
Orbitofrontal cortex neurofeedback produces lasting changes in contamination anxiety and resting-state connectivity D Scheinost, T Stoica, J Saksa, X Papademetris, RT Constable, C Pittenger and M Hampson From Translational Psychiatry (2013)
Brain Injury
With a traumatic brain injury (TBI), the brain itself needs to be targeted. With Neurofeedback, the brain is exercised. The specific areas of brain affected by the TBI are targeted during Neurofeedback therapy. Often in the case of TBI, a Neurofeedback practitioner will utilize a qEEG brain map to determine which areas should be targeted. A variety of symptoms can be improved through Neurofeedback training, such as speech, movement, regulating moods, controlling behavior, and reducing headaches. Neurofeedback works because the brain regulates each of those issues. For people recovering from TBI, Neurofeedback training can be particularly helpful in improving speech. During Neurofeedback training, the specific areas of the brain related to speech can be targeted. In this way, the areas associated with speech can be strengthened and improved. In fact, some neuropsychologists believe that Neurofeedback is actually rehabilitating the damaged speech areas of the brain rather than just dealing with compensation.
Evaluation of Differentiated Neurotherapy Programs for a Patient After Severe TBI and Long Term Coma Using Event-related Potentials Maria Pachalska, Malgorzata Lukowicz, Juri D. Kropotov, Izabela Herman-Sucharska, Jan Talar The Medical Science Monitor, 2011
Depression
Feeling down or depressed from time to time happens to most people. Usually such feelings pass, and a person can improve his or her mood naturally. However, some people cannot break out of a depressed state over an extended period of time. In those cases, a person is considered to have clinical depression. However, this is much research that shows that depression is neurological, not psychological. Certain brain patterns are frequently linked to depression. Therefore, training the brain through Neurofeedback has a powerful ability to treat depression. With Neurofeedback training, the brain practices a healthy pattern of mood regulation. Sometimes people with depression notice improvement after only a few sessions. However, for the brain to fully learn, more training is required. In time, the brain learns to regulate mood on its own.
Real-Time Self-Regulation of Emotion Networks in Patients with Depression David E. J. Linden, Isabelle Habes, Stephen J. Johnston, Stefanie Linden, Ranjit Tatineni, Leena Subramanian, Bettina Sorger, David Healy, Rainer Goebe
Learning Disorders
Many of the methods used and promoted to help people with learning disabilities are intended to help a person compensate for, or work around, their learning difficulties. Neurofeedback actually improves learning skills by training the areas of the brain relevant to learning or executing skills such as math, reading and auditory and visual processing. Research studies show that several areas of the brain coordinate in the learning process. These separate parts of the brain communicate with each other at extremely fast speeds. If the timing of communication is even slightly off, there can be impairment in the ability to learn. New research shows that this “connectivity training” seems to consistently improve learning difficulties. Neurofeedback training can improve the coordination and communication between different areas of the brain. Improved timing in the brain has a significant impact on one’s ability to learn. Neurofeedback directly targets the coordination and communication between areas of the brain to improve timing, and therefore learning.
Research Review: Emanuel Miller Memorial Lecture 2012 – Neuroscientific studies of intervention for language impairment in children: interpretive and methodological problems D V M Bishop www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3593170/
Stress/PTSD
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a serious type of anxiety caused by an extremely stressful event or series of events. People who suffer from PTSD are looking for a method to treat their symptoms, and unfortunately, many people experience only limited benefit after trying various therapies and medication. Neurofeedback trains the brain to produce a calm state as well as regulate stress response. In addition, the specific areas of the brain affected by PTSD can be targeted. Frequently, the first sign of improvement is that a client sleeps better. Then other symptoms begin to improve. After sufficient training, someone with PTSD can maintain a calm state on his or her own. When a person has reached this stable state, Neurofeedback treatments can be decreased until no further trainings are necessary.
The long-term costs of traumatic stress: intertwined physical and psychological consequences (pdf) Alexander C. McFarlane
Sleep Disorders
At least 40 million Americans each year suffer from chronic, long-term, sleep disorders. An additional 20 million experience occasional sleep problems. Neurofeedback is a powerful tool for helping people fall asleep and stay asleep. Over 3,000 licensed health professionals such as psychologists, therapists, and doctors now use this new technology daily with patients. As a group, they report significant and consistent improvements for client sleep problems. Many brain training options can help as well as making lifestyle changes and changes in sleep “hygiene.” A skilled Neurofeedback clinician can review many different options with clients to help them assess what’s most appropriate for their problem, including several brain regulating technologies such as Alpha-Stim and Brain Music.
Neurofeedback in ADHD and Insomnia: Vigilance stabilization through sleep spindles and circadian networks. Arns M, Kenyans JL. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23099283