Neurofeedback

Jackb23

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Okay, I have officially done about 10 sessions already. Hmmm... don’t want to get too excited, but I think I may be onto something. They are trialing rTMS for many diseases, as I just read on healthrising.org. The reason I bring this up is that rTMS and Neurofeedback are cousins, maybe even brother and sister. They both work through external Neuro-modulation. However, there are some differences.
Disclaimer** I have done rTMS high frequency to my left DLPFC and low frequency to my right DLPFC.

rTMS: You really don’t have to do anything. You sit there, and a large pulse is sent through your head. It is probably “more powerful” than Neurofeedback, but this may not be a good thing. rTMS is expensive. Because it is new, it is also very hard to get a doctor to use it off-label (expense also). There is a good amount of literature over its benefits in certain disorders.
Proceed with caution when they tell you it is “not invasive.” They also say it’s “free of side effects.” I think this is extremely misleading, and I could even see it leading to lawsuits. Saying rTMS is non invasive and therefore can’t do damage is akin to saying being beat over the head with a baseball bat is non invasive. Shockwaves from a bomb are also non-invasive by this logic. My face twitched the whole time of treatment due to my nerves being stimulated—like a grimace. I bring this up because I think that rTMS can do wonders in restructuring someone’s brain, but they are treating a patient completely blind. Double-Blinds are great at identifying if a thing works better than placebo, but for side effects they are frivolous. The way to for the companies to beat the trial is to underreport all side effects. It’s always a win-win.

There have been reports of patients having serotonin-syndrome with meds that they were previously on after rTMS.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=rtms+serotonin+syndrome+case+report&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart#d=gs_qabs&u=#p=SPlsA7siQwMJ

Induction of mixed episodes have also been reported in patients that weren’t bipolar.


Neurofeedback:
I am an advocate for Neurofeedback because it is based on personal needs. The treatment is tailored to the patients original brainmap after anomalies are identified. It isn’t a shot in the dark like rTMS. Neurofeedback is underutilized in my opinion. Largely because it can be administered by anyone, and hasn’t been taken seriously because of this. With that said, the literature on Neurofeedback is also quite profound.

Neurofeedback isn’t hard. It doesn’t require concentration. In fact, If you were to concentrate I think you would do worse. If you can watch a movie, you can do Neurofeedback. After doing multiple sessions a day for the whole week, my brain was a bit tired. After all, it is probably under serious reconstruction for the better. Don’t let it’s benign appearance fool you. Neurofeedback has been shown to help Brain Injury patients regain function years after the injury. Often when nothing else worked.

Improved fatigue in MS patients. A population not too distant from me/cfs, perhaps. This effect was maintained for many months after.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/25362584/

Has been found to help stroke and tbi patients through changes in white and gray matter.


Like rTMS, neurofeedback can also do harm despite its “non invasive” tag. You have to make sure you have the right protocol, and there are many. This is also an issue. Overtraining can lead to fatigue.

Neurofeedback also requires more sessions than rTMS. I will probably have to do 40+.


With that said, after just 10 sessions I have had moments where I have been astonished. Although transient, there have been moments that feel like a flashback to the past. At times in recent days, my memory has been better than it has been in years. My outlook has been serene. I’m not ready to declare it a success just yet, but if the effects continue to build I will be in awe. I will report back and let you guys know how I would compare it to ketamine, Wellbutrin, allopurinol, rTMS, transcutaneous nerve stimulation, and so many others.

Side note: I am doing 19 channel QEEG Neurofeedback.
 

Jackb23

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Hey @Jackb23, I just came across this thread too and was curious if you had any update..
Happy to try and help. I found the Z scores to be very helpful, but I unfortunately had a falling out with the provider. I tried other types of Neurofeedback but it is very hit or miss when you only train one or two channels and this is what is was for me. It’s also problematic in that Neurofeedback kind of looks like the chiropractic industry atm in that almost anyone can get certified to practice. I am currently trying to get my local hospital in Ohio to get a Z score device as the next closest provider that has one isn’t anywhere near to me.
 

Jackb23

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So Z scores uses standard deviations to guide the treatment instead of predetermined rewards. So instead of inhibiting a frequency or two and rewarding another one, you are able to adjust in real time. You also don’t have to guess which frequencies you should train which is a huge problem with neurofeedback imo (guessing). This will also save you money because there is less trial error, although z scores may be slower if you are training more locations than you’d be on a typical machine.

Also, most of the time, the machines that use Z scores have the capability to “train” 19-20 sites at once. This is nice for several reasons: 1. It limits guesswork 2. You may have more than one area out of whack 3. Changing one region may change another region indirectly (ie alpha/theta protocol at the back of the brain can increase beta in the front—happy to provide sources if anyone wants).

edited: To add (guessing)
 

gbells

Improved ME from 2 to 6
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I was referred to a pain clinic a few years ago. It was a nighmarish experience. I was suffering from high levels of chronic pain with CFS. They prescribed outdated psychological methods: CBT instead of meditation for pain and stress, tens (which was banned by Medicare a few years earlier) and left me in severe pain with no methods to control it. They had biofeedback but didn't prescribe it. I ended up walking out of the clinic and left a nasty review. It was zero help. Later I went to a pain psychologist and he was able to lower pain intensity 50% with Headspace pain meditation in only three months.