NIMH funds Neurofeedback

[RobinN]

Two new grants funded by NIMH will focus on novel and innovative approaches to treating children who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

ADHD is a mental disorder linked with attention problems, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. It affects around 3 to 5 percent of U.S. children, although some studies suggest as many as 8.7 percent of children are affected.(1) Current diagnostic criteria include the presence of impairing symptoms by age 7, although children may not actually be diagnosed until later. While hyperactivity generally decreases with age, other symptoms tend to persist, and it is not uncommon for ADHD-associated impairments to continue through the teenage years and into adulthood.(2)

L.Eugene Arnold, M.D., and Nicholas Lofthouse, Ph.D., of The Ohio State University, will lead a study on the use of neurofeedback, also called EEG biofeedback, an alternative therapy sometimes used to treat ADHD and other disorders. While some early studies have suggested a potential value of this treatment, scientific evidence of its effectiveness remains limited. During neurofeedback, a person receives information concerning the frequency of his or her EEG brain waves, which then can be used to attempt to bring it into a range associated with healthy brain function to improve behavior. The feedback the person receives may be visual, like a wave pattern, or an audio cue, such as a beeping sound. The researchers will use a new technology in which the brain waves govern the controls of a videogame that the child plays unaware of the brain wave training that is going on in the background.

In their pilot study, Arnold and Lofthouse will randomly assign 36 boys and girls ages 6 to12 to receive either EEG neurofeedback in the context of computer games or a placebo EEG treatment. During the placebo treatment, the participant experiences pre-programmed game effects that are not affected by his or her brain wave activity. Participants in each group also will be randomly assigned to receive their treatment either twice or three times a week to assess the effects of treatment frequency. All participants will complete 40 treatments total. Parents and teachers of the participants will rate the child's ADHD symptoms regularly. The findings from this pilot study may help scientists develop a larger-scale, randomized controlled trial to assess this non-medication treatment for ADHD.
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Reference

(1) Froehlich TE, Lanphear BP, Epstein JN, Barbaresi WJ, Katusic SK, Kahn RS. Prevalence, recognition, and treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in a national sample of US children. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007 Sep;161(9):857-64.

(2) Kessler RC, Berglund PA, Demler O, Jin R, Walters EE. Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R). Archives of General Psychiatry. 2005 Jun;62(6):593-602.
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New NIMH Research to Test Innovative Treatments for Children with ADHD

[Bernard]

Always glad to see more studies on Neurofeedback - even if it isn't for epilepsy. The more evidence that that accumulates for it's ability to normalize brain function, the harder it will be for the medical community to continue ignoring or "poo-pooing" it.