Anyone tried neurofeedback??

Options
hcdo
hcdo Posts: 201 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My current psychologist has been pushing me to do neurofeedback. She claims it will help my insomnia, anxiety, depression, sugar cravings, and on and on. (She knows meds/behavioral therapy haven't worked for my issues in the past.) Most of the info on the 'net is from practitioners of it, who seem to tout it as a miracle cure, which of course sets off my woo-woo meter. I've found very few controlled, randomized studies, and those were mainly for treatment of ADHD.

Does anyone have any experience with it, and if so, did you find it successful? Or do you know of any studies that I can take a look at? I'm very hesitant, especially since she wants me to come twice a week, and it can supposedly take a LOT of sessions before seeing any noticeable differences. I want to trust her, and I like her as a therapist, but something just feels off.

Replies

  • htimpaired
    htimpaired Posts: 1,404 Member
    Options
    I've heard of Biofeedback, which is an evidence based practice for anxiety, depression, etc. It's really about learning to take cues from your body, to interrupt automatic responses to those cues and replace them with more adaptive ones. Really most of the work comes from you, as the patient, to do your homework and apply it.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2939454/
  • JustSomeEm
    JustSomeEm Posts: 20,197 MFP Moderator
    Options
    Seems like woo on a cursory glance. Just checked PsycINFO, found a paper called "Better than sham? A double-blind placebo-controlled neurofeedback study in primary insomnia" by Schaubus, M., et. al. (2017).

    Favorite quote from the abstract: Based on this comprehensive and well-controlled study, we conclude that for the treatment of primary insomnia, neurofeedback does not have a specific efficacy beyond unspecific placebo effects. Importantly, we do not find an advantage of neurofeedback over placebo feedback, therefore it cannot be recommended as an alternative to cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, the current (non-pharmacological) standard-of-care treatment.
  • hcdo
    hcdo Posts: 201 Member
    Options
    htimpaired wrote: »
    I've heard of Biofeedback, which is an evidence based practice for anxiety, depression, etc. It's really about learning to take cues from your body, to interrupt automatic responses to those cues and replace them with more adaptive ones. Really most of the work comes from you, as the patient, to do your homework and apply it.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2939454/

    Thank you! I had heard of biofeedback as well, but not neurofeedback. With the latter, you're watching your own brainwaves, which could either be fascinating or entirely boring :D Maybe I'll look more into biofeedback.
  • hcdo
    hcdo Posts: 201 Member
    Options
    JustSomeEm wrote: »
    Seems like woo on a cursory glance. Just checked PsycINFO, found a paper called "Better than sham? A double-blind placebo-controlled neurofeedback study in primary insomnia" by Schaubus, M., et. al. (2017).

    Favorite quote from the abstract: Based on this comprehensive and well-controlled study, we conclude that for the treatment of primary insomnia, neurofeedback does not have a specific efficacy beyond unspecific placebo effects. Importantly, we do not find an advantage of neurofeedback over placebo feedback, therefore it cannot be recommended as an alternative to cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, the current (non-pharmacological) standard-of-care treatment.

    Thank you! It seems like most of the studies I saw had the same conclusion about it not being much better than placebo effects. Good to know.
  • Millicent3015
    Millicent3015 Posts: 374 Member
    Options
    My woo woo meter is also on alert. Maybe ask her why she's so adamant you do it. Is she working on a paper and/or wants you to be a case study? Is she using you as a guinea pig for some new treatment she just heard of? Is a colleague or friend approaching her for test subjects? Or is she genuinely wanting to help and thinks this could be useful to you?

    If her pushiness is making you uneasy, perhaps heed your instincts. Psychologists are meant to take things at the patient's pace, not their own. In the end, it's your brain on the line, not hers. If she's that desperate to have someone try this new thing she can use herself as a test subject and mess with her own frontal lobes before reaching for yours.
  • hcdo
    hcdo Posts: 201 Member
    Options
    Millicent3015 wrote: »
    My woo woo meter is also on alert. Maybe ask her why she's so adamant you do it. Is she working on a paper and/or wants you to be a case study? Is she using you as a guinea pig for some new treatment she just heard of? Is a colleague or friend approaching her for test subjects? Or is she genuinely wanting to help and thinks this could be useful to you?

    If her pushiness is making you uneasy, perhaps heed your instincts. Psychologists are meant to take things at the patient's pace, not their own. In the end, it's your brain on the line, not hers. If she's that desperate to have someone try this new thing she can use herself as a test subject and mess with her own frontal lobes before reaching for yours.

    I don't think she's trying to do a case study or new treatment; she's been doing neurofeedback for years. But it's a good idea to ask her. I'm sure she'll probably just say what she's been saying, that she thinks it will really help me and that counseling/behavioral therapy, etc., can only take me so far. She was pretty low key about it for a long time, only talking to me about it at the first session, but she's been ramping up, maybe as we've been getting deeper into more intense territory. I'm damned stubborn, so this may just be her reaction to my lack of improvement/general grouchiness.

Categories