Epilepsy. ADD. Depression. PMS. Insomnia. What do all these
conditions havein common? They're being treated with a new form of
high-tech brain biofeedback. So open your radical science horizons. Here,
a report on the cresting edge of the brainwave.
JAKE'S BIRTH WAS A LONG SHOT. Three months premature, he weighed
just a pound, and his early birth took a heavy neurological toll. When he
was four, he entered his parents' room one evening, drooling and unable
to speak. As they watched, horrified, one side of his body went into
seizure and he lost consciousness. Jake's seizures often happened at
night, and his parents kept an overnight bag packed for trips to the
hospital emergency room, where he received injections of Valium. He often
had petit mal seizures during the day. He was also diagnosed with
cerebral palsy, which diminished his fine and gross motor skills. His
learning disabilities included attention deficit disorder and
hyperactivity. He had speech problems and ground his teeth constantly.
His sleep was troubled and he often woke up ten or eleven times in a
night.
Like many children with epilepsy, Jake took two heavy-duty
anti-seizure medications: Depakote and Tegretol. Both are depressants,
and both have serious side effects. As a result, the boy was logy and
often tired. "We felt that Jake was losing his personality," says his
mother. "He was zoned out."
I had known Jake since his birth; the incredible story of his
survival had made him something of a celebrity in our town of Helena,
Montana. Two years ago, I was in Santa Fe doing a piece on the use of
different technologies to enhance brain performance; while I was there, I
heard about a new technique for the treatment of epilepsy--a natural
treatment called electroencephalographic (EEG) biofeedback, or
neurofeedback, that often reduced or eliminated the need for drugs. I was
skeptical, but l mentioned it to Jake's mother at a Christmas party. They
drove three hundred miles to Jackson, Wyoming; for a week at the local
hospital, Jake underwent two hour-long sessions a day on a computerized
biofeedback program.
Within just a few days, Jake's condition had improved. "His
teeth-grinding and sleep problems disappeared," says his mother. "We
could carry on a conversation for the first time ever. He wanted to cut
and draw and zip and button. He could never do any of that." Unprompted,
friends and relatives remarked that Jake seemed more centered.
Later, Jake repeated the protocol for another week. The results
were similar. Jake's pediatric neurologist, Don Wight--who had been
extremely skeptical--examined the boy. When he was done, he concluded
that he had found a new and exciting way to supplement his practice:
"There was a qualitative and quantitative improvement in the way he was
functioning," says Wight. "It was very real."
Jake's parents bought one of the machines and donated it to the
local hospital, where Wight is using it in his practice. "For most
people, taking one kind of medication to control seizures is a pretty
good deal," he says. "I would like to use neurofeedback with people who
are on two medicines, on high doses, or whose seizures are not being
controlled." And Jake? Though he may need to continue neurofeedback
training for the rest of his life, the quality of that life will most
likely be forever changed.
Neurofeedback is a new type of computerized biofeedback that has
begun to wend its way into the health care system with dramatic effects.
It's a far cry from the old kind of biofeedback that was developed in the
1960s and used primarily for relaxation and to treat stress,
incontinence, and pain. For some applications--epilepsy, attention
deficit disorder, and closed head injuries--a number of studies and much
anecdotal evidence suggest neurofeedback is effective. Other research
suggests it may help treat chronic substance abuse and post-traumatic
stress disorder. For other conditions, such as Tourette's syndrome, sleep
disorders, depression, and autism, individual case studies are glowing,
but few, if any, controlled studies have been conducted. "The phenomenon
is robust," insists Siegfried Othmer, Ph.D., physicist and founder of EEG
Spectrum, one of a handful of companies in the U.S. that sell biofeedback
equipment. Othmer and his wife Sue fell into the biofeedback business in
1987, when treatment caused a miraculous change in their son, who, like
Jake, suffered from life-threatening epileptic seizures.
After seeing Jake's transformation up close, and talking to others
who had used neurofeedback, my curiosity was piqued. What could it do for
a relatively healthy 42-year-old with the usual assortment of mid-life
problems: occasional fatigue, a little mild depression, intermittent
problems with sleep? When I started work on this article, I also started
a series of training sessions. The results were surprising. But first, a
look at just what neurofeedback is--a potential method for changing what
drugs and therapy sometimes can't--and at the window it may provide on
the greatest mystery of all, the human brain.
MUSIC of the Brain
