To: Psychiatrists and Mental Health Clinicians

Re: A personal observation about EEG-Biofeeback (Neurofeedback)

           
(Note: This memorandum has been edited by Neurogemix for brevity and clarity with permission from the author)

    "I have been practicing neurofeedback for two years. It is important for me to do what I can to inform other psychiatrists and mental health clinicians of my experience because it is becoming increasingly clear that neurofeedback -- if available in your area -- should be on your list of interventions to consider. 

    The reason I pursued training in neurofeedback was my awareness of the limitations of the medications we use. Depending on the condition and medication, there can be a high level of treatment resistance, a high degree of residual symptoms, and many unpleasant side effects. There is little disagreement among psychiatrists that our attempts to help patients with medication are limited by such things as sexual side effects with SSRI’s, cognitive and emotional dulling with mood stabilizers, negative end-organ effects on the kidneys and thyroid with lithium use, and negative nervous system effects with neuroleptics. And even when medications do help, it is often not enough and the side effects are often so noxious that we end up with treatment noncompliance. All in all, medications treat symptoms and offer little in the way of a cure.

    I have a practice with relatively high functioning patients. However, I am hearing of very good results with more ill bipolar and depressed patients. I encourage other psychiatrists to consider the value of neurofeedback for patients who are not responding adequately to medications, who do not tolerate medications well, or who want to reduce their dependence on them. I think of neurofeedback as an anticonvulsant and while not a panacea, it can improve and stabilize symptoms in the very kinds of cases psychiatrists struggle with.

    Because it addresses brain processing and regulation, neurofeedback has wide application. Sleep disorder clinics would also do well to invest in neurofeedback. I have seen it help several patients with sleep apnea who also experienced improved alertness and less fatigue. I had one complex patient with PTSD , depression, migraines and sleep apnea whose migraines disappeared, anxiety lessened, and whose work performance improved dramatically. 

    I do not treat children, but I do see lots of ADD symptoms in the adults I do treat. Neurofeedback has some of its best evidence in treatment of ADD/ADHD. In one of the studies it performed as well as Ritalin, and the improvement was still present after the treatment was discontinued.

    It is very important that psychiatrists know of the availability of neurofeedback, and learn to refer patients to neurofeeback providers and coordinate care with them so patients can get optimum symptom relief as quickly as possible with as few medications as possible. Neurofeedback can reduce relapse rates, hospitalizations, and length of treatment. Please consider getting informed about neurofeedback."