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ADD/ADHD
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ADD and ADHD
Inattention and Impulsivity Behavioral Problems
ADD/ADHD
When you have ADD, people often see symptoms like distractibility, impulsivity, inattention, or lack of follow-through as a result of laziness or lack of effort. If ADD were laziness or lack of effort, doctors wouldn’t prescribe medications for it. Doctors prescribe medications because ADD is a brain problem -- not a psychological issue.
Medications may help, though results are often temporary and have side effects. Medicines do not teach you how to be calm and focused, or to behave properly. In addition, even the best talk therapy and behavioral interventions can seem to make minimal progress with difficult kids. Neurofeedback is a new approach that can help people of all ages learn to gain self-control, including improving attention. Neurofeedback is particularly suited for children, because it is a computer game – of sorts. The games are very special. They are not played with a mouse – but with your brain. Kids think it’s neat.
What ADHD looks like in terms of brain function:
 It is common knowledge that medication for attention problems are stimulants, and stimulants speed you up. So how do stimulants appear to slow down a hyperactive patient and help them focus? With hyperactive ADD there may be too much slow activity in brain regions that regulate focus and attention.
ADD patients compensate for this slower than normal brain activity with constant stimuluating body movement to “wake their brain up”. Medication stimulants speed up brain activity, which faciliates focus and concentration, and lessens the need for constant body movement.
When your brain looks like this:
it has the proper amount of energy (small normally regulated waves) .
-versus-
When your brain looks like this:
it likely does not have enough energy to do what it needs to do (large slow waves)
What ADD looks like in terms of brain function:
Excessive fast activity in the brain can also cause problems. That can include impulsivity, aggressiveness, and anxiety. Imagine your brain racing so fast that it’s difficult to listen or sit still. People with ADD are normally very intelligent. They often get the big picture right away, but because their mental pace may be faster than the person giving the instructions, they move ahead and miss many details.
Neurofeedback and ADHD/ADD:
The brain is a self-regulating feedback loop. When one area of the brain is out of sync, it messes up other areas that kick in to compensate for the dysfunctioning dysfunctional area. Through neurofeedback the brain learns to return to normal regulation and balance, which can effectively improve attention and concentration.
When you train your brain with neurofeedback, it helps you learn how to become focused, calm, and to gain self-control. Most people can’t control the number of heart beats they make per minute. With biofeedback training, they can learn to do so. Likewise it is also possible to learn to control the rhythm of the brain. If the brain’s waves are “not in sync” or are too fast or slow, it’s very hard to focus, be calm, or be in control.
Various studies conducted over many years show that brain training with neurofeedback improves inattention, distractibility, impulsivity and self control.
When you learn to a catch a ball and are rewarded by catching it, over time catching a ball becomes easier. It is no longer a conscious decision to think through the steps learned to catch a ball. It becomes somewhat automatic and the more you practice the better you get. Similarly, with neurofeedback the patient is rewarded and made aware when the brain is producing the proper brain waves, reducing excessive fast or slow activity.
What type of results can I expect from brain training?
Surveys of health professionals using neurofeedback estimate that over 85% of their patients report improved ability to focus, regulate behavior, and decrease impulsivity when they train on a consistent schedule.
Through out the learning process, we can work with the patient and their physicians to decrease medications, and ultimately decrease their training schedule. Many individuals are able to decrease medications and training all together while some are left with the minimal dose and/or a maintenance training schedule (once every 3-6 months, for example).
We also have several other tools available that compliment and often optimize the training experience. Depending upon the individual patient, these tools may assist by increasing the impact of neurofeedback and at times shortening the duration of training. Please contact us for an individual consultation.
Asking how many session will be required is like asking how much time will it take to lose weight. The neccessary number of sessions depends on the severity of the disorder (how much weight you hope to lose), the complexity of the situation (why excess weight is being maintained), and the dedication of the supporting family and/or friends (to accomodate the training and make any complementary lifestyle changes).
Medication concerns:
Many parents have concerns about side effects of medication. The list of these can be long, but can include a loss of appetite (especially in growing children) cardiac risks, heightened anxiety, interference with sleep, or even becoming “less personable.” There’s concern that children are taught that pills can solve their problems.
The longer someone takes medication, the larger the risk of side effects. You can build up a tolerance to medication, which means that medications get changed, or the dosage is increased, or additional medications are added. This can also increase the risk of side effects.
Most people are unaware that brain training can better regulate focus while decreasing distractibility, impulsivity, and behaviors which are annoying to teachers and loved ones. So, out of desperation, people, seek artificial chemical control.
What are the long-term effects of medications for ADD / ADHD?
Ritalin was introduced in the 1950s as a treatment for narcolepsy (a condition in which a person suddenly falls asleep), and was first used for treatment of ADHD in the 1960s. Forty years later, there still have not been studies of the long-term effects.
According to the Canadian Medical Association, “… while research has conclusively proven Ritalin's short-term effectiveness; little is known about the long-term efficacy and safety of a drug that some children take for many years. In fact, the average duration of randomized trials of the drug is 3.3 weeks … There aren't long-term studies, and that's of some concern because we don't know whether the initial positive effects . . . might diminish over time. Moreover, we don't know what happens to the side-effects . . . whether those get worse or maybe they diminish too - we don't really know."
Copyright © 2009 by Sadar Psychological and Sports Center
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