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ADHD and Neurofeedback

8 replies

MichelleWac · 16/05/2011 16:23

I have a 12 year old son who has recently been diagnosed with ADHD. I just wondered if anyone had any experience of ADHD and neurofeedback treatment? Would appreciate any help!

OP posts:
bumblingbovine · 17/05/2011 15:01

Hi

I have read about this too and although I can't help I am afraid I am interested in any answers with regard to this as well

tunbridgewellsmum · 17/05/2011 16:19

Hi there.. I'm also considering this for my son who is 11. We've tried various meds to no avail. There is a place in London called Peak Mind www.peakmind.co.uk where you can do the sessions (at about £100 per session) or hire the equipment for use at home. If you choose to do the 'home treatment' you have to be pretty determined and organised to keep it up, and that's kind of putting me off at the moment, as we have a lot of things going on at home. Not sure if there is anywhere else in the UK ... good luck!

bumblingbovine · 17/05/2011 20:50

If you are near London It is also offered here www.lanc.uk.com but you need a gp referral even if you are paying. I don't know how valid the research is though.

MichelleWac · 20/05/2011 12:12

Thank you for your pointers - I shall look into those websites and see how we get on!

OP posts:
Clare123 · 06/06/2013 14:18

Just bumping this to see if anyone had personal experience of this?

margoff12 · 13/02/2015 12:22

We use neurofeedback at home for us and for our daughter, me and her are both ADHD gifted. We really find it useful because you basically have a program able to demonstrate you what helps you to calm down, what works for you when you need to concentrate. And it also trains you to do it under pressure (like time pressure, people around watching what you do and how well you perform while playing etc.), which I find very useful for study, work and life in general. We always live our life under stress and coping with it takes more efforts from some people than from others.

I've always had a problem of paying attention to "boring staff" you know, and my daughter has got the same trouble. I managed to make myself do the staff anyway, but she is very stubborn in this case, so I had a problem with helping her to manage it. And then I realized that, for no reason, I couldn't do it myself as well, so we spent some time on researching the theories of self-control. And then we tried neurofeedback, and applied the theories of controlling yourself to the technology. It's interesting to see that various strategies help some people and don't help others. For example, I could concentrate by using "blank starring" at some visual point, and my daughter couldn't do it, but thinking about a list of Christmas presents to give to friends and relatives helped us to be max focused within seconds!) Going to a "happy place" helped her to relax very fast, which was not my case at all, I realised how I need to breathe in order to calm down. It's great t see how the theory works on the screen in a real time, becasue once you try different things, you see what works for you, and w started using it in everyday life as well. Funny enough, the day comes when you don't use the technique to reach a state, you just make your brain control it, because you're used to doing it in the games. So we find it great and useful.

My daughter plays different apps and also trains with Focus Pocus, a set made for kids. I used to play only apps for adults bought at MyndPlay and Neurosky platforms but now I think I'll try her game as well, as it also has some games for memory training, and I think I should work on mine a bit. I've read a review on Focus Pocus before, and the game tools also allow adjusting to the level of the player, so I wll try it soon for sure

happymom12 · 13/02/2015 16:17

We also use EEG technology at home, I really see no point in paying £100 per session when you can buy a headset with a few apps for £200 and keep adding the apps when you want some new ones which don't cost that much...
We have the same game as margoff12 and we also like it.

There's a bunch of research on ADHD treatment with neurofeedback guys in the Internet. The research hadn't been active until the last decade indeed, but now we can find lots of feedbacks and studies to read:

  • Monastra, VJ., Monastra, DM., George, S., (2002). The effects of stimulant therapy, EEG biofeedback, and parenting style on the primary symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 27(4):231-49.
  • Monastra, VJ., Lynn, S., Linden, M., Lubar, JF., Gruzelier, J., LaVaque, TJ., (2005). Electroencephalographic biofeedback in the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 30(2):95-114
  • Monastra, VJ., Lynn, S., Linden, M., Lubar, JF., Gruzelier, J., LaVaque, TJ., (2005). Electroencephalographic biofeedback in the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 30(2):95-114
  • Hirshberg, LM., Chiu, S., Frazier, JA., (2005). Emerging brain-based interventions for children and adolescents: overview and clinical perspective. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 14(1):1-19.
  • Loo, SK., Barkley, RA., (2005). Clinical utility of EEG in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Applied Neuropsychology, 12(2):64-76.
  • Carmody, D., Radvanski, DC., Wadhwani, S., Sabo, JJ., Vergara, L., (2001). EEG biofeedback training and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in an elementary school setting. Journal of Neurotherapy, 4(3):5-27.

-Foks, M. (2005). Neurofeedback training as an educational intervention in a school setting: How the regulation of arousal states can lead to improved attention and behavior in children with special needs. Educational and Child Psychology, 22(3):67-77.

  • Loo, SK., Barkley, RA., (2005). Clinical utility of EEG in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Applied Neuropsychology, 12(2):64-76.

The main thing in treating ADHD, in my opinion, is that we should never forget that it should be a combination of various things you do to help your child, then you can make sure you are helping them to manage it

bentoni · 05/11/2016 16:19

happymom - how easy or not is it to get the sensors on the child's head?! I can imagine this would be a sticking (ha!) point for us!

How often does your child use this?

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