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Neurotherapy in school setting aids with brain disorders - 2011

newspaper article byJaqueline Reis

LANCASTER - Clinical psychologist Robert W. Davis is bringing a new type of treatment to the Perkins School and the community this fall, one that might seem like something out of science fiction, but which he has seen make a dramatic difference for his patients. It's called neurotherapy, and it works by helping people change their own brain waves.

Mr. Davis, who came to Perkins only recently, has been offering neurotherapy for about three years and saw one of his most dramatic successes two years ago. One of his patients was a woman in her early 40s who had "an absolutely terrible, traumatic childhood" and a violent first marriage. She couldn't sleep more than an hour at a time and usually slept only four or five hours intermittently at night, he said. Her temper flared easily, and she had a hard time keeping a job.

She "had no interest in seeing a shrink," he said, but she agreed to neurotherapy, a treatment that helps people train their own brain waves to work differently. Mr. Davis did several assessments of her brain waves and identified areas of her brain that were behaving differently than the norm. With the sensors on her head, the signals fed into a computer that showed Mr. Davis whether she was aligning her brain signals within the target range. Nothing flows from the computer to the individual.

If the woman was aligning her brain waves in the range specified, a different computer screen would show her that she was making progress. Adult patients typically see a picture coming together or other symbols that they are moving toward a goal. For children, the screen might show advancement through a video game.

It may feel random at first, Mr. Davis said, but patients eventually learn to change their brainwaves for a nanosecond, then a full second and longer. He compared it to an infant trying to touch a toy dangling in front of him. At first, a baby will wave his arm wildly and hit the object by chance. Eventually, he learns to reach with precision.

Mr. Davis' patient saw results quickly. After three sessions, she slept through the night for the first time in 23 years, he said. After three weeks, her second husband came to ask how his wife had changed so much.

Neurotherapy can be used to treat everything from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to sleep disorders, and starting this month, Perkins will offer it to their students and the public at large through the Perkins Neurotherapy Center. Perkins serves primarily students with Asperger's syndrome. Mr. Davis said he expects the treatment will help people with autism spectrum disorders, but not cure them.

Neurotherapy providers are relatively few and far between. The van der Kolk Center at Glenhaven Academy in Marlboro, a private school for traumatized children, has offered neurofeedback to its approximately 30 residential students for about a year. Unlike Perkins, the van der Kolk Center does not do a comprehensive QEEG (quantitative electroencephalography) brain wave assessment first, although they do an in-depth consultation, said Assistant Clinical Director Amy J. Maricle. They have seen success, especially with students who are over-alert, such as those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Eighty percent of people who use neurotherapy see an improvement, according to Perkins. For students with ADHD, it can make it easier for them to focus and more successful in school, Mr. Davis said.

Patients do not usually need follow-up sessions years later, because the therapy literally rewires the brain. Mr. Davis, who has a doctorate of psychology degree, compared it to knowing how to ride a bike: Once the knowledge is there, it becomes more ingrained with use. "Life gives them practice opportunities," he said.

As with medications, there is some trial and error in the beginning, said the van der Kolk Center's Ms. Maricle. People around the patient need to pay very close attention in the hours after treatment to see whether the person might be over- or under-stimulated. "You have to make small adjustments," she said. "But luckily, with neurofeedback, side effects are far less long-lasting than if you were taking a medication."

Any changes in a person's medication should be made in consultation with the doctor who prescribed it, Mr. Davis said. Many people report they need less medication after neurotherapy, he said.

Neurotherapy will not solve everything, said Mr. Davis, who still advocates traditional therapy. There are people whose problems have nothing to do with how their brain functions. "Someone doesn't have to have anything wrong with their brain to be really angry" if they've had a difficult life, he said.

Brain function is sometimes only part of what is troubling a person. "Helping level the playing field by giving them a normative brain does not help them make meaning of their lives," he said of patients. Additionally, families will often need therapy to help them cope with changes in the patient, he said.