EEG Neurofeedback

[haird18]

Bernard thank you for your info. but right now I'm fixing to go to Dallas again because've had so many complications from my last stay! I will stay in touch

[stilldancing_98]

Awsome! I talked to the epileptologist center about it . They didn't know what it was.

[RobinN]

Have they heard of Biofeedback? My neurologist, I guess she is an epileptologist, said if she wrote neurofeedback many would not know what that was. But if she wrote Biofeedback that is widely known. So you put in the EEG Biofeedback = Neurofeedback.

I took my neurologist the DVD that EEG Institute gives away to prospective patients.

[Bernard]

Awsome! I talked to the epileptologist center about it . They didn't know what it was.

I'm afraid that's pretty typical, but the AAPB and ISNR are working to change that.

[stilldancing_98]

Yes Robin. I just saw my Dr. again and he said, its called biofeedback. I would love to go to the class in Seattle but it is just to much money for me.Hi julius. My son has epilepsy , one kidney and high blood pressure. He is seeing an epileptologist in Seattle. I also have epilepsy , he flushed out his first kidney about 4 or 5 years ago.The other kidney has grown into a full size kidney.

[1096]

is it really expensive

[RobinN]

1096 - In Los Angeles with Sue Othmer, one of the pioneers of the therapy, I had a FREE consultation. Then the initial testing was $350. After that each session was priced out at $150. However, I paid in full before we started and that saved me a %. Then because I was a member of this group, it saved me an additional 10%. So for a little under $3000, Rebecca had 20 sessions.

I started seeing a decrease in her seizure patterns around the 8th session. I believe that this along with nutritional changes and bio-identical hormones have given her a decrease in her seizures, and perhaps control over them. She went from 6 / month to zero this past month.

I feel this therapy was well worth the investment.

[Bernard]

It's cheaper than the ER, that's for sure.

[1096]

there's a place i can get neurofeedback, my mum wants it me to do it... it's like 4 hours away. she "knew it wouldnt be cheap"

but i told her id rathr a car or some recording session time hahaha. im more iffy about spending my mums money than she.

it'll really help with other stuff too like the concentration (etc) ? i mean iv lookeed it up but chuck out some reallllllllly genuine povs!

[Bernard]

it'll really help with other stuff too like the concentration (etc) ?

Yes.

[Bernard]

Interesting article about neurofeedback practitioners and the direction of the industry:

... It's a field that has been largely unregulated and developed by people not licensed in psych or neurologist fields, explained Othmer, who has been dedicated to neurofeedback work - training others and devising equipment - for more than 20 years. So while neurologists, psychiatrists and psychologists are increasingly incorporating neurofeedback in their practices, as the work's efficacy and promise becomes more proven, there are plenty of others swimming in brainwaves.

That has Judy Crawford scared. She's with the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America (BCIA), which establishes and maintains standards recognized by the leading biofeedback and neurofeedback associations. While practitioners who are neither certified by BCIA nor members of associations might be legitimate, she said she would never trust her head to just anybody.

"How can you recreationally work with a brain?" she asked. "Do you want to recreationally take out my appendix?"
...
Hoggan's business claims to subscribe to the spiritual model, not medical model, of neurofeedback. The weight of words became apparent when the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing in January ordered him to stop "practicing mental health therapy . . . without a license." He said the order was due to language, including the words "depression" and "anxiety," that had been used in a now-discontinued pamphlet.

One of the biggest critics of outfits such as Brain Harmony Technology is D. Corydon "Cory" Hammond, a professor and psychologist at the Universithy of Utah School of Medicine.

He explained the intricacies - much more complex than the Hoggan method - of the neurofeedback work he has used in his clinical practice for 16 years. Hammond heads the standards committee for the International Society for Neurofeedback & Research, one of the two overarching membership organizations, and said his concern is rooted in consumer protection.

"In the last four or five years, we've started to really see an increase in unlicensed, unqualified practitioners," he said. "Neurofeedback can really do some wonderful things, but it is a buyer-beware marketplace."

In a piece Hammond wrote for The National Psychologist, he said there's evidence that "inappropriate neurofeedback training" can "increase seizures, depression, anxiety" and more. But he acknowledged in an interview that these problems could be remedied with proper neurofeedback.
...
There will come a time, Othmer predicted, when insurance companies will cover neurofeedback treatments and drug companies, which have made a fortune on anti-depressants, may run scared.

Licensed therapists, he added, need not worry about job security. The professionals, he said, simply need to get on board and "be better than everyone else." As neurofeedback goes mainstream, he said demand for professionals - with insurance-covered services - will boom.
...
Around for about 40 years, biofeedback gained popularity in the late 1960s as a way to reach "altered states" and "enter your own domain of spirituality," said Siegfried Othmer, chief scientist of The EEG Institute. "It was a way to have the LSD experience without the LSD," he said. And it was summarily written off as "too weird" and considered "fool's gold" by university psychologists, he explained. So it was the professionals who let biofeedback fall out of their grasp, he added. All these years later, now that they're discovering "it's real gold," he said they want it back, they want to own it, which is why there's a brewing struggle over who has the right to dole out neurotherapy. ...

Brain Harmony Technology: Utahns tune in to neurofeedback

[walksalot]

I've read this whole thread and really considered the EEG Neurofeedback as another treatment, but I wondered why none of my doctors recommended it. Then I checked the EEGinfo Directory at the top of this page and searched for a Provider in my area. The nearest one is 88.9 miles away. I can't get there. I've also considered the laser-type treatment, but remembered that the 24-hour EEG done years ago at OSU still told Dr Drake, the head of the Neurology department there, that even though my seizures originate in my right frontal lobe, they are untreatable. Dr. Drake said that they are so deep and near the area for thought and reasoning processes, it wouldn't be worth a 10% chance of helping me to cause a 90% chance of damaging other parts of my brain. I'm already stupid enough, I guess. I just hope this VNS will help. It can always be removed if it causes side effects I can't take.

[RobinN]

Yes I understand the frustration with not finding someone in your area. I had to drive 35 mi, and that was a trek twice a week. We were lucky to be involved with the best of the best. Sue Othmer was wonderful in how she handled my daughters situation. It would be nice to set up a foundation to provide room and board for those wanting to work with this type of therapy.

It has been the most important therapy in my daughters improvement. Not to take anything away from the nutritional changes we have made. I do believe it is giving the brain the ability to heal. Yet without neurofeedback, we most likely would still be dealing with seizures. Kindling is a strong message within the brain patterns.

My daughters seizures also are occuring in the right frontal lobe, though it is thought that they might be starting elsewhere. I learned that just because one doctor tells you it is so... doesn't always mean it is. Most of the time they are guessing... but they are really good at fooling us.

Do more research please on the fact that the VNS can be removed. I don't believe the wires can be.

[Bernard]

We are haing to drive about 60 miles (each way) for Stacy's NF appointments. It's a pain, but worth it IMO.

[Duvexy]

I am going to try to teach myself neurofeedback. I might as well. Everybody else has taken turns messing me up with anti-epileptic drugs I might as well try something else on my own that may work. I am going to do a little research to see If it will work. I already ordered GSR2 stress control with software to see if this will start me in the right direction. Thank you for all your support. I will drop in from time to time for update information on the device.

[RobinN]

You might also get the book:
Epilepsy A New Approach by Donna Andrews
There are some exercises in the book that are a part of her Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This therapy has an 80% success rate with their program.

[RobinN]

Awsome! I talked to the epileptologist center about it . They didn't know what it was.

You might contact the EEG Institute for one of their CD Packages and hand it over to your doctor.
Also, if I were you, I would write down all of the websites and youtube video addresses and give that as well. They just might give it to an intern to watch.

I know it is a pain to have to teach our medical "gurus", what is new and "happening" in their field, but they do have limited time in their day. Only when they themselves have emergencies do they go above and beyond the call of duty.

[haird18]

I had a long conversation with them over the phone again! This time they were very concerned of all the brain damage I had since birth and that is what is eliminating me from so many trials! Here is what they also said neurofeedback might not be as beneficial as they had thought before. Because I have such an unusual brain abnormality and birth defects those things together presented a new challenge to them. So we discussed new triggers and came up with an unusual trigger that happened as a child. It was that something in my stomach that has caused me to get sick now used also triggers my seizures as a child is possibly causing it now! So we are keeping track and see what happens next.
David

[RobinN]

I do remember now that you mentioned that you had spoken to her.
I hope this new approach brings you some relief.

[RobinN]

“What Is Biofeedback?” Question Answered by Leading Scientific Groups
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/545209/?sc=rsmn