Neurofeedback therapy is popular today because of its effective means of alleviating stress, depression, anxiety, and head trauma. Have you heard about it? Do you know how it works?
If you don’t have any idea about it, then you’re on the right page since we’re going to talk more about that here.
What Is It About?
It’s also called electroencephalography (EEG) and it’s a non-invasive method of conditioning your brain to treat specific health problems. You can also use that to measure your body temperature and brain waves.
This method can provide either or both audio or video feedback of your brain, where it reflects a positive or negative response.
How is Neurofeedback Therapy Significant To You?
Treating brain disorders has always been challenging since the beginning of time. Those conventional medications you have seen or experienced give unpleasant side effects with little improvement on you or to any patient.
This is a major concern among patients, and it’s a great thing that there’s a new non-invasive method of correcting your brain. EEG helps your brain to function well again by giving you that window to retrain it.
How Does Neurofeedback Therapy Work?
Will it be painful? This can be one of your first questions to ask, yet it’s 100% non-invasive and painless.
Firstly, the practitioner will ask you a few questions that will help them understand your condition. These questions will be about your medical history, lifestyle, and medications if there are any.
Then the personnel will attach the electrodes to different areas in your head, and it doesn’t produce any electricity, rather it’s only used to measure your brain waves.
Technically, the number of electrodes placed on your head varies depending on your session and what’s needed to be treated. As your brain scan starts, it will show a real-time graph of your brain waves on the screen.
As the scanning continues, you will be tasked to do certain things, like playing a video game, listening to music, seeing pictures, or a video clip. Your brain produces a response for every stimulus introduced to you during the session.
These responses produce a corresponding signal on the screen and the practitioner interprets the results and discusses them with you.
Does Neurofeedback Therapy Work on ADHD?
There has been a study among 15 individuals aged 8 to 15 years with ADHD, and they all underwent 30 sessions of EEG. The findings showed that EEG is efficient in improving specific areas in the brain affected by ADHD.
These areas where improvements showed are on the impulsivity and loss of attention of the patient. All results in the study were significant and further research can improve EEG’s impacts on the recovery of ADHD patients.
Can Neurofeedback Therapy Treat Anxiety Disorders?
Most of the patients who received this therapy showed significant relief and improvement in dealing with their anxiety problems. Likewise, the symptoms are less harmful before the patient receives an EEG.
Neurofeedback therapy has shown effective results in retraining your brain to respond positively to anxiety triggers. This is a great breakthrough in the medical field for curing behavioral disorders.
What are the Benefits of Neurofeedback Therapy?
Compared to other methods of treating brain problems, EEG is more friendly and painless. There are also many findings supporting its effectiveness in the field. Additionally, here are the main benefits of neurofeedback therapy:
Enhanced Memory Retention
With EEG, you can retrain your brain and improve the synaptic actions in your hippocampus. This part of your brain is responsible for your short term memories, and EEG can greatly improve it.
Reduced Anxiety Levels
EEG provides a more efficient manner of retraining your brain to positively react to anxiety triggers. Also, you can have a real-time assessment of the improved condition of your brain as it handles stress and anxiety.
On the screen, anxiety produces increased levels of beta brain waves while low levels of alpha brain signals. After you undergo EEG, your alpha signals will significantly rise, meaning your brain is calmer.
Better Sleep
If you’re suffering from sleep disorders, then EEG can help you get enough delta waves for a night of better sleep through the night. It’s this brain wave that’s responsible for your peaceful sleeping patterns.
Alleviates Depression
Currently, there is no definite study yet to explain the root cause of depression, but it’s connected with low levels of delta waves. If you’re suffering from depression, then most likely you have sleeping problems.
Luckily, neurofeedback therapy greatly helps retrain your mind from any triggers, and also for increasing delta waves in your brain. This significantly helped a lot of patients with depression get a good night’s sleep.
What are some FAQs regarding Neurofeedback Therapy?
We cannot deny the fact that some people are skeptical of this new practice. Despite that, you can rely on the fact that EEG is non-invasive and painless in retraining your brain to react positively to stress and triggers.
Here are some common questions asked by the community regarding this treatment option:
- Is it expensive?
- Is it safe and pain-free?
- How do they measure the improvement?
- How long does it take for you to see the results?
- How long does one session last?
- Are there still accompanied medications with EEG?
Indeed, neurofeedback therapy is a stunning breakthrough in helping people with brain or behavioral disorders. Despite its effectiveness, there are still a few rooms for improvements with this technology, and we’re excited to see that in the future.
It may come at a higher cost, yet its effectiveness and convenience are a bang for the buck. In case you have further questions about EEG, then search for a credible medical practitioner near your city.
Don’t hesitate to inquire and learn more about this promising technology for resolving your brain disorders.