Neurofeedback: Unlocking The Trauma

[anthony]

Studies will help... but he's only conducting a study at present, nothing else. He isn't claiming it as a viable first line treatment for PTSD. Yes, it does work on some, though to date, the results have been very minor compared to other treatment types. If they can change the process and adapt it to work on a majority, then sure, it can become a viable treatment.

It's like saying coaching is a treatment for PTSD, when it isn't. Coaching is about boosting a persons beliefs in themselves, focusing them onto specific goals, so forth. All of these things can absolutely show an improvement in someone with PTSD, no doubt about it, yet it doesn't show any neurological results in lessening cognitive trauma impact, thus all the symptoms will return with a vengeance.

Running this forum for the years I have, I've seen a lot of come and go therapies. SGB is a huge craze, though is currently sliding off the radar because the results aren't showing what was hyped initially as a cure for PTSD. It helped a minor few who also suffered extreme pain as a result. Was it the pain causing symptoms and not PTSD? That is a question failing answers because the interview was done prior to the minor successes, thus symptoms can show as one thing because criterion A was met by having lived through an extreme trauma, thus PTSD is on the table when such symptoms are present.

The problem is that the few it worked on, was it the pain causing the symptoms which was alleviated via SGB?

EMDR started in a dreadful place, did a lot of damage to people within its initial phases and conceptions. Over a decade or so it got tweaked and honed into what it is today, being a leading treatment in trauma with a majority success rate.

Can they do the same with neurofeedback? Sure... if it demonstrates the cognitive changes at the neurological level that the other Tier 1 trauma treatments show under MEG, CAT and such imaging.

Things change in time... but right now, it is a drop in the bucket and does little good overall. Bessel van der Kolk is a leading expert on PTSD, absolutely... yet he was also one to try and get CPTSD recognised and push cross categorisation of existing diagnoses, instead of sticking with individual diagnoses applied logically as and when they are present uniquely. He is a pioneer and may trump something positive from this... or he may simply be trying to get recognition of something minority into the big league. Time will tell, but right now, neurofeedback has little impact on treating PTSD with success.

 

[cdg]

Anthony

What have you found to be the most effective treatments for PTSD?

 

[anthony]

There are four proven effective treatments to date, being Cognitive Trauma Therapy, Stress Inoculation, Prolonged Exposure and EMDR. Those four, right now, have the highest rate of success in treating PTSD.

Those four are also highly mixed amongst many other treatment types, being CBT based therapies that specifically target both cognitive and practical exposure elements in substance abuse treatments, dissociative treatments such as DBT, depression treatments and so forth.

There are a lot of different names around today that are CBT based therapies... even EMDR alone will not fully treat PTSD because it needs a doing component of exposure based therapy outside of just invivo, you need actual real-life doing in order to engrain new learning behaviours, remove associated fears and such.

You can get a massage every week and feel great, and you could say that keeps your PTSD under control, however; if you stopped doing those massages every week, would it remain under control? That is the tester for therapy models. They all have strengths and weaknesses, and the problem is that many who want to rebrand a therapy, change things around to make a name for themselves, often do so diluting a model by claiming it is effective for such a broad spectrum of mental health, which is just total BS and people are naive for believe such.

My point is that there is no one way to skin this cat... but more the foundational approach does need to encompass all the right elements for longevity for PTSD, otherwise PTSD will be back next week, next month, kicking your arse again and you won't be able to get it under control.

 

[cdg]

Thanks Anthony. That is great info.