Bio- & Neurofeedback for PTSD
Post-traumatic Stress Disorders
What is Post- traumatic stress disorders ?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, is an anxiety disorder that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a great physical or emotional harm and a life threatening incident. PTSD can look like someone is anxious, depressed, or scared, but the symptoms are more complicated than that. A key characteristic of PTSD is feeling scared or stressed even after the danger has passed. Someone with PTSD will usually avoid taking risks linked to the traumatic incident. It should be noted that every individual with PTSD does not go through the trauma themselves. On some occasions, the traumatic experience of a family member or friend can lead to PTSD. Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat.
Typical symptoms of PTSD:
- Flashbacks to the traumatic event
- Continual memories of the traumatic event
- Disturbing thoughts
- Disturbing dreams and nightmares
- Avoiding people and events
- Insomnia
- Inability to concentrate
Benefits of Bio- & Neurofeedback for PTSD
People who experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders have the same brainwave patterns as an anxious person. They usually have excessive fast brainwave patterns, even when there is no task to do. Dominance of the fast brainwaves causes difficulty in relaxing and keeping calm. There might be also not enough brainwaves related to concentration and alertness.
During the assessment session, as a first step, I will look into your brain function and find out what brainwave patterns causes your symptoms.
Throughout your Neurofeedback sessions, with a personalized training program, your brain will learn how to generate correct brainwaves in order to improve the brain harmony and balance which will lead to improvement of the PTSD symptoms.
References
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Nicholson AA, Ros T, Densmore M, Frewen PA, Neufeld RWJ, Théberge J, Jetly R, Lanius RA. A randomized, controlled trial of alpha-rhythm EEG neurofeedback in posttraumatic stress disorder: A preliminary investigation showing evidence of decreased PTSD symptoms and restored default mode and salience network connectivity using fMRI. Neuroimage Clin. 2020;28:102490. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102490. Epub 2020 Nov 5. PMID: 33395981; PMCID: PMC7708928 [PubMed] [Ref.]
Misaki M, Phillips R, Zotev V, Wong CK, Wurfel BE, Krueger F, Feldner M, Bodurka J. Real-time fMRI amygdala neurofeedback positive emotional training normalized resting-state functional connectivity in combat veterans with and without PTSD: a connectome-wide investigation. Neuroimage Clin. 2018 Aug 19;20:543-555. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2018.08.025. PMID: 30175041; PMCID: PMC6118041. [PubMed] [Ref.]
Chiba T, Kanazawa T, Koizumi A, Ide K, Taschereau-Dumouchel V, Boku S, Hishimoto A, Shirakawa M, Sora I, Lau H, Yoneda H, Kawato M. Current Status of Neurofeedback for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review and the Possibility of Decoded Neurofeedback. Front Hum Neurosci. 2019 Jul 17;13:233. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2019.00233. PMID: 31379538; PMCID: PMC6650780. [PubMed] [Ref.]