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Is Neurofeedback Helpful For Epilepsy?
By Dr. Clare Albright
Epilepsy sufferers' live every day of their lives with the fact they can at any point have a seizure. It is not "if" it is "when". They must be prepared at all times to deal with the embarrassment and repercussions of this fact. Then when considering that it has not been very long ago that people were burned at the stake, accused of being witches, simply because of the misunderstood "firestorm" in their brain that unpredictably caused them to lose control; epilepsy was scary, both for those who suffered with it and those who watched a seizure unfold in someone else.
I remember one sunny Saturday morning when I was 13 years old. I heard strange sounds coming from my 16 year old brother's room. I tentatively opened the door to his room and saw the horrible site of my brother having a grand mal seizure in his bed.
A few weeks later we were all playing a game of baseball in the school yard. At one point, when my older brother was playing second base, he lay down on the black top, had a grand mal seizure, and then stood up as if nothing had happened. The rest of us ran over to him in an alarmed state, while asking, "Are you OK? Are you OK?" He replied, "What? What do you mean?" It seems that he was completely unaware of what the rest of us had observed.
I know firsthand how troubling it is when a loved one has epilepsy. I wish that neurofeedback had been one of the therapies that my brother had available back in 1973 when this took place. Instead he had to take heavy medication that slowed down his bright conversational style.
Almost 30 years later, in 2001, Dr. Barry Sterman looked very carefully at all of the available research on the use of neurofeedback in the treatment of epilepsy. The results were very promising; of those treated for epilepsy- some of them experiencing severe and uncontrolled seizures prior to treatment-82% improved significantly. There was a considerable reduction in seizure activity.
Now, knowing full well, that the "naysayers" would jump on results like these, claiming everything from flawed studies to the placebo effect, one group of scientists utilized neurofeedback to do just the opposite. They actually wanted to cause seizures to be more intense, and to increase in frequency. Why? To show that neurofeedback could be used to train the brain in either direction. The results? They were just as successful going the other way-making symptoms worse-as they had been in using neurofeedback to reduce symptoms.
Were there still skeptics? Of course; we live in a society where some people still think the moon landing was a scam, and that Neil Armstrong was filmed on a soundstage, and not the surface of the moon. For some, the satisfaction comes from not believing. Fortunately, neurofeedback is one treatment that does not depend on the belief or expectation of the patient.
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A little something on Dr. Clare Albright...
Dr. Clare Albright is a psychologist and the author of a 168 page book, "Neurofeedback: Transforming Your Life with Brain Biofeedback" and can be reached at her website: www.drclarity.com
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