Prescription devices for pain, sleep, anxiety etc?

Horizon

Horizon

Senior Member
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239
I've seen a number of these FDA approved devices to help with pain, insomnia, depression and anxiety. They send impulses to the brain that are supposed to help. Have any of you tried these devices? I want to ask my psychiatrist for one to try.
 
cman89

cman89

Senior Member
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429
Location
Hayden, Idaho
I use a TENS unit made by Healthmate Forever that was pretty cheap, I use pad electrodes for muscle pain, zapping my gut, and I have ear clips for experimenting with Vagus stim. Not sure how effective those are though. The muscle pads help though. This is a very basic unit though, and does nothing for brain stim...
 
cman89

cman89

Senior Member
Messages
429
Location
Hayden, Idaho
cman89 said:
I use a TENS unit made by Healthmate Forever that was pretty cheap, I use pad electrodes for muscle pain, zapping my gut, and I have ear clips for experimenting with Vagus stim. Not sure how effective those are though. The muscle pads help though. This is a very basic unit though, and does nothing for brain stim...
Click to expand...
Sorry if I didnt really answer question
 
Horizon

Horizon

Senior Member
Messages
239
No its ok, I've tried tens and it didn't help. I'm interested in this brain stimulation that purports to help many problems.
 
perchance dreamer

perchance dreamer

Senior Member
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1,720
@Horizon, are you talking about CES, cranial electrical stimulation? I have an Alpha-Stim, a common brand of CES. I never found it effective for pain, but at times it did help my sleep quite a bit when I set it very low. I think it's worth a shot if you can try before you buy.

If you are interested in the Alpha-Stim, I'd contact them and ask who's a distributor in your area.

http://www.alpha-stim.com/
 
perchance dreamer

perchance dreamer

Senior Member
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1,720
Also, @Horizon, and I want to tag @serusaert too since he also has sleep problems, there's some excellent software for brainwave training to address sleep, anxiety, etc. They let you trial a subset of their NeuroProgrammer 3 software for 2 weeks free and without having to provide a credit card. It's been years since I've dealt with them, but they always had really good customer service.

At the bottom of the page, there's a button that lets you try the software:

https://transparentcorp.com/products/np/

You can get deep into it and learn how to customize sessions, or you can do as I did and just pick the session for the problem you want to address and listen to it.
 
Horizon

Horizon

Senior Member
Messages
239
perchance dreamer said:
@Horizon, are you talking about CES, cranial electrical stimulation? I have an Alpha-Stim, a common brand of CES. I never found it effective for pain, but at times it did help my sleep quite a bit when I set it very low. I think it's worth a shot if you can try before you buy.

If you are interested in the Alpha-Stim, I'd contact them and ask who's a distributor in your area.

http://www.alpha-stim.com/
Click to expand...

The Alpha Stim one looks interesting. There seem to be a few devices out there so I'm trying to compare and find out which is the cheapest.
 
*GG*

*GG*

senior member
Messages
6,397
Location
Concord, NH
Horizon said:
The Alpha Stim one looks interesting. There seem to be a few devices out there so I'm trying to compare and find out which is the cheapest.
Click to expand...

I have used the Alpha Stim before, seemed to help me through a very rough patch.

GG
 
perchance dreamer

perchance dreamer

Senior Member
Messages
1,720
@Horizon, these are expensive devices. I pasted in this info from the FAQ page:

http://www.alpha-stim.com/alpha-stim-technology/faqs/

How much will my Alpha-Stim cost, and will my health insurance pay for it?
A: The Alpha-Stim AID costs $795; and the Alpha-Stim M device is $1,195. Many plans that cover durable medical equipment will pay for Alpha-Stim technology—we recommend that you discuss Alpha-Stim with your insurance provider.

I would not be hopeful about insurance paying although it's always worth it to find out. I bought my AS years ago from a distributor who bought the devices in bulk and was able to give me a really good price. I don't know if that's still done. You could call and ask about it.

I don't know about the Fisher Wallace, but do a search on it in our forums. There was some discussion of it. With any device like this, you absolutely should not buy it unless you could get a refund for most of your money if it doesn't work for you or do some kind of trial.

If it were me, I'd try the Transparent NeuroProgrammer software first because it's very powerful and about $60 to buy it if the free trial works for you.

They have 7 different types of sleep sessions you can choose from. I'm not sure if the trial software has that many since I assume the trial is a subset of all the sessions, but I'm sure the trial includes at least several.

It's a matter of seeing which would work best for you, but the session for chattery minds, which entrains SMR (sensory motor reflex), helped me the most. I would listen to it with headphones on my Sony Discman--yes, I am that much of a dinosaur!--in the evening. I think it's a 30 or 40 minute session.
 
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