Has anyone tried neurofeedback to treat ADHD

[Anonymous]

My 7 year old son is having a very difficult time focusing (apple doesn’t fall to far from the tree) and we are trying everything we can to help him. Even when he is playing hockey he has a hard time focusing. I have heard that neurofeedback isn’t developed enough but the companies that sell them have lots of testimonials to help them sell these products. Please give me any insight you may have, we really want to make the right decisions for him.

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[Anonymous]

I went partway through a course of neurofeedback about a year ago. I initially started in hopes of reducing some social anxiety I have, but the practitioner had hoped it would also have an impact on my mild-moderate ADD (primarily inattentive). After about 2 months of sessions I felt no improvement in my social anxiety or ADD, but initially saw a dramatic reduction in my chonic nail biting early on. I also was able to sleep through the night much better, but that improvement was off and on until I started taking an anti-depressant, which has significantly improved the quality and quantity of my sleep consistently.

I read many of the same testimonials you have and am financially healthy enough that I was willing to pay the $1000 for what I was told would be half the number of sessions I’d need to really start seeing an improvement. I think my practitioner, who is a licensed therapist as well, was quite genuine and I believe I paid much less for the work than people pay in larger cities. But I could never get comfortable with seeing no change in my anxiety and with never being able to get specific answers on exactly how the treatment works (because nobody really knows) or what all the computer monitoring was saying. Being a career scientists, its always been important to me to understand how things work and I’m educated enough that I can almost always understand these types of explanations when they are given. So while I appreciated less nail biting and more sleep, my instinct kept telling me to not pay the 2nd $1000 in advance when I wasn’t seeing even slight lessening in the social anxiety and had been told that even after the full course you have to come back for “refreshers” periodically.

That said, my gut feeling is that this does work for some people, especially for fear or phobia issues, and I’ve actually suggested it to some friends. Since that time I’ve made some personal discoveries with the help of my regular therapist that led me to realize my issues aren’t related to fears and I’ve seen much more noticeable improvement in my social anxiety issues now that I realize what they are stemming from. Plus I have been taking an antidepressant for about 9 months and that has been an enormous help.

A short story made too long to respond to your post, but in my opinion neurofeedback was just too expensive for a process that just isn’t conclusive enough. And the thing that has helped me most with focus has always been the stimulant medication I’ve been taking for a couple of years. That has truly been the godsend for me for both increasing focus at work and subsequently increasing my self-confidence that I’m not the screw-up I’ve always thought I was because I can keep focused longer. Also, in case you aren’t aware, neurofeedback is covered by almost no insurance companies, so payments will almost certainly be out of pocket and up front.

Good luck.

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[kc5jck]

From what I’ve read and seen, neurofeedback doesn’t work for ADHD nor does hypnosis. I expect it doesn’t work where it otherwise might, when the problems are caused or related to ADHD.

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[Anonymous]

Thanks for the feedback. It sounds like there is little proof on the therapy which is to bad.

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[Anonymous]

I found a very interesting web site full of articels and videos about neurofeedback therapy:

http://cocukvegenc.com/icerikdetay-132/dikkat-eksikligi-nedenleri-ve-neurofeedback-tedavisi.html

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