Denver Neurofeedback

You Can Change Your Brain

Addictions courtesy www.eeginfo.com


Addiction is a brain-based problem, and it demands a brain-based solution. The will is over-rated when it comes to the addicted brain. Fortunately, a new era opened up at the outset of the "Decade of the Brain" with the publication in 1989 of Eugene Peniston's epoch-making study of Viet Nam Veteran alcoholics (see Alcoholism below). Our own research group participated in a replication of this work, and it included a variety of drugs of choice. The result was that outcome was in no way dependent on the drug of preference, whether we were talking about heroin or crack cocaine or methamphetamine or alcohol.

The inclusion of Neurofeedback in residential treatment tripled the favorable outcome in terms of relapse prevention over the best conventional treatment when looked at one year post-treatment. At three years, the ratio was even better.

It is estimated that for every dollar spent in addictions treatment, the society saves $7. This appears to be the case even with simply abominable outcome statistics in conventional treatment. Multiply this by a factor of three and we see that the society is better off by $21 for every dollar spent in treatment. And the formerly addicted person is clearly better off as well. The implementation of Neurofeedback-augmented treatment programs should be a priority for our society.

 

 

Published Articles by Dr. White

  • Consulting Editor, The Journal of Neurotherapy, Haworth Press

  • "Theories of the Effectiveness of Alpha-Theta Training for Multiple Disorders". Introduction to Quantitative EEG and Neurofeedback. Evans and Abarbanel (Eds.) New York: Academic Press, 1999.

  • "Alpha-Theta Training for Chronic Trauma Disorder, A New Perspective". 1995, The Journal of Mind Technology and Optimal Performance, Mega Brain Report. Vol. II, No. 4. Full article below:

Neurotherapy


    A. THE PENISTON PROTOCOL


I. INTRODUCTION
Twenty-five years ago EEG feedback was of major significance in the field of biofeedback. Elmer and Alyce Green at The Menninger Institute were experimenting with theta training and creativity, Thomas Budzynski with twilight learning, Lester Fehmi with open focus, Barry Sterman with epilepsy, Joel Lubar with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and Joe Kamiya with alpha training. Others also were focusing on the training of the brain and central nervous system, but, because the technology was crude, promises of the value of brain wave training seemed to evaporate. EEG feedback became an almost forgotten stepchild.

With the publication of the research of Peniston and Kulkosky (1989), the "child" returned from exile and is growing and developing and expressing its original, almost forgotten, promise. Peniston's focus was a population of alcoholics, all of whom had been difficult alcoholics for more than 20 years and had been in rehabilitation unsuccessfully four to five times. Using his protocol of alpha-theta brain wave training combined with imagery of desired outcome, he was able to show reduction to elimination of craving for alcohol. The original research population is still showing better than 80% success rate some 9 years later.

Peniston and Kulkosky (1991) then expanded their research to a population of Vietnam veterans who were hospitalized for post-traumatic stress disorders and were having nightmares, flashbacks, and many other problems, dysfunctions, and diagnoses. By the end of the research protocol, the symptoms of this population also appeared to have resolved. They were no longer having nightmares and flashbacks. Whereas all subjects were on medications at the beginning of the study, only one was on medication by the end of the study and his dosage had been reduced by one-half. Perhaps the most remarkable outcomes of both of these studies were the major personality shifts that were recorded in their pre- and post-Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (Millon II) scores. Most of the pathology of these personalities had normalized (Peniston & Kulkosky, 1990).

THE PENISTON PROTOCOL

To summarize briefly the protocol originally used by Dr. Peniston in his research, the training began with several sessions of  biofeedback training as an entre into EEG feedback. In the original research the protocol involved fifteen 30-min sessions, typically performed twice a day, 5 days a week, on Veterans Administration Hospital in-patients. In the field today there are many versions of this original protocol, with the most common employing the original thermal and autogenic training followed by approximately 30 EEG feedback sessions, including an imagined scene of the rejection of the undesired behavior and imagery of desired outcome, which are introduced at the beginning of each EEG session and repeated in each session throughout the treatment. The below protocols are used in combination with eeg brainwave feedback with computer generated tones awarded whenever the client achieves the desired brainwave (alpha theta) state.

In the initial stage its process to effect change is believed to offer the patient both a conscious and an unconscious program to follow and, along with the clarification of goals, create a clear intention for the desired outcome. The subsequent development of imagery of the desired outcome apparently enhances the result.

Handwarming with autogenic training and temperature biofeedback follow as the next step. Handwarming has been used in the field of biofeedback for many years as an effective tool to correct hypertension and other symptoms of sympathetic overarousal. It is helpful in teaching one to relax and be calm in any situation. Handwarming involves the circulatory aspect of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system involved in the "fight or flight" response. In the fight or flight response, the body is alerted and blood flow is increased to the major organs. This can become a chronic stress response. To counter this state, as the peripheral circulation is increased with training, the body relaxes. Handwarming also is a way of teaching the body to respond to cues from a tangible feedback to which the patient can easily relate and acts as a bridge to lower arousal states as a pretraining to eventual achievement of alpha and theta EEG frequencies. Autogenic training exercises (Green & Green, 1977) are used in combination with the temperature biofeedback training to achieve further relaxation of the body and a quiet, inward turned state of mind. In addition, rhythmic diaphragmatic breathing is taught to still body functions and focus attention.

During his or her initial sessions of thermal feedback and autogenic training exercises, the patient and his or her therapist develop a graphic, detailed visualization of the desired outcome, including a scene rejecting undesired behavior or a "clearing" of the condition to be altered. This final state visualization also involves the image of being already healed, which is believed to skirt the problems of potential harm that might result from imaging the healing process incorrectly, and is designed to reprogram the "unconscious" in a desired direction. "Programming the unconscious" with mental rehearsal of new images and intentions of desired change seems to effect healing and change both physiologically and psychologically (Green & Green, 1977; Achterberg, 1985; Simonton & Simonton, 1978). Imagery is one of the earliest forms of healing. There is archaeological evidence suggesting that the techniques of the shaman using imagination for healing are at least 20,000 years old, with vivid evidence of their antiquity in the cave paintings in the south of France. Asclepius, Aristotle, Galen, and Hippocrates, often regarded as the fathers of medicine, used imagery for diagnosis and therapy (Achterberg, 1985). At the present time Drs. Dean Ornish, Bernard Siegel, Norman Shealy, Carl Simonton, Larry Dossey, and others collectively (and courageously) are reinstating the role of the imagination in healing. Imagination is said to act on one's physical being. Images may communicate with tissues and organs, even cells, to effect change (Simonton & Simonton, 1978; Achterberg, 1985; Rossi, 1986; Siegel, 1986).