Neurofeedback treatment for Apergers, has anyone tried it?

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I am in the process of getting my son formally evaluated for Aspergers. The first therapist he has met with, (from a referral from my son's Psychiatrist who prescribes Wellbutrin and Adderall for my son, does a monthly med check, no talk therapy to speak of), wants to do some brain mapping, or EEG's for my son. Then she wants him to do neurofeedback at her office.

For all my research on Aspergers, I had not run across this approach before. Now that I have been googling it hard, I have found clinics that do this, such as this one in Southern California.

Drake Institute of Behavioral Medicine

Has anyone heard of this? Has anyone tried this approach with their child? It is very expensive and I have no idea if my health plan will cover any of it. Though, moot point if it will help my son.

Thanks.

A friend tried bio-feedback (which I realize is different) and found it to be a waste of money.

You are dealing with an experimental area, that may or may not actually work. It obviously isn't the next great miracle or we'd all be doing it already. But that doesn't mean it won't do something ... you just don't know.

Read around and see if you can gather some idea of success ratios from people who have tried it, then make sure the therapy wouldn't be stressful to your child, and finally decide if the cost on an unknown is worthwhile to you. That is a highly personal decision, in my opinion.

Thanks very much for the feedback.

I did spend most of the day yesterday researching this method. And it is still relatively new and experimental. Some people swear by it and some people say 'snake oil'.

My son says he is interested in getting a 'brain map', an eeg, which will show which parts of his brain are 'under functioning'. Well at least that is how I understand it. He said he is not sure about the neurofeedback part. And this is funny, he pointed to his Japanese page on his computer screen and this short posting in Japanese, and he told me, 'it describes here how neurofeedback works'.....which means he has been researching it himself, on Japan websites.

I am glad he is interested, I am more than willing to give it a shot if he wants to pursue it. She also told me to back off his interest in teaching himself Japanese, as in don't try and force him to turn this interest into a career Mom! (guilty as charged), he is doing it for the love of it. Smart lady.

It has also occurred to me that Big Pharma and the doctors that write all the scrip, would not like neurofeedback treatment, it would definitely cut into their profit. I will keep people posted on how this turns out.

My fingers are crossed at the moment.

I was looking into neurofeedback the other day for myself. My understanding is biofeedback is different. NeuroFB involves ...well here's a good link to describe it http://www.maineneurotherapy.com/What_I ... rapy_.html

I personally can't decide if it would be helpful or not. I once knew someone who said it helped her kids a lot, though.

WE did it for my ADD dd. It definitely changes the brain! In the end she was better off but I think they improved her IQ more than her ADD. She was smart enough already.

Cons: - they say it is permanent but it's not. You need to go back every three years or so, get another expensive QEEG and a few sessions.
- it got a lot worse before she was better. She was a disaster for a while and my friends were quite concerned.
- at this point her ADD is better but I think it's b/c she is more mature.

Would I recommend? Not at this point. Huge waste of money, though not detrimental and somewhat helpful in the end.

My son has agreed to have the EEGs done. If he wants to continue and try the neurofeedback, then he will.

From all posts in so far I am getting a mixed bag of reaction, from waste of money, helped my child a little, to I found it helpful. And I was wondering about how long does the effect last, so thanks for that info, that you have to repeat in a few years, etc.

If the EEG can explain to him (and me) what is going on with his brain, and the Neurofeedback treatments help ease his social anxiety and depression. Then I will call that a big win.

If it turns out to be not helpful for him, then we will have explored that avenue and as the kids say, 'game over' for that idea.

Any other opinions or experience with this treatment is welcome.

Just be prepared that it could get much worse before it gets better. My dd was pretty scary for a while. Maybe your child won't go through this.

Aann: can you elaborate?

Can you describe what 'got worse' before better meant?

I believe you said she was ADD? Did her ADD issues get worse?

Did she get more scattered and then was able to focus better on, for instance, her school work?

Thanks

We did it for about a year and a half. For severaal months, she was just loopy with symptoms she never had before and the ADD was far worse. I homeschool both my kids. Several of my homeschool friends took me aside and said she has drastic problems - she will never be able to go to school (college), marriy, be able hold down any sort of job, or live independently. She appeared not able to hear what anyone said to her. Prior to neurofeedback she was of above average intellegence, of compliant and happy-go-lucky personality, and only suffered from ADD-inattentive type (no hyperactivity). A few weeks after the moms' comments, the neurofeedback got her better, but there were still ups and downs until the end. At the one year mark, the practicioner thought she was done but was not in a good condition. It took another several months to get her in a good condition. Like I said, I think her ADD was better, in the end, and her IQ was definetly higher. But I lost trust and too much money in the process. This is surely the way of the future. But the future is not now untill they are able to perfect the process.

I took dd (10yo) to Drake Institute in the summer, last year, and we saw a 40% improvement in most symptoms. She had a hard time transitioning from one activity to the next, ex playing on the computer to doing hw or leaving to run errands. Now she doesn't have a fit when she needs to move on to another task, she'll complain but that's it. She also gets along with her younger brother much better, she will help him (unheard of before), share toys/things/snacks, is more helpful around the house (folds laundry), emotionally more stable and more talkative. The only negative that I can think of is that it was expensive and time consuming (we chose to do the treatments within 6 weeks in the summer, so it was 3-5 times a week). I don't know about other places offering neuro, but at Drake we met the medical director to review the results, had a case worker, 2 education mtgs, and had to submit a weekly progress report (areas where we see improvements or if we don't see improvements, comments, questions). We also had to reinforce the positive behavior, which is very important. Catching her doing something like making a smooth transition to hw and praising her. We use a behavior/chore chart so she earns points she can use for special activities or $ towards clothing, toys, lipgloss, headbands, etc. HTH's and best of luck!

We had the EEG done, then we had an 'interpretation' done by a 'specialist', who would NOT commit to anything. Well it could be Aspergers and it could not be, but it is not ADD and basically we were told absolutely nothing, other than OK parents, now you can sign your son up for months of expensive 'treatment' in a field that I now know after more research is not proven, not recognized by the established medical community and evidently cures everything. Addictions, alcoholism, Asperger social issues, ADD etc.

Sounds too good to be true? It probably is. We ended it right there before we were out thousands of dollars for a questionable, unproven treatment. I do think bio feedback is valid but neuro feed back? Not so much if not outright Charlatans. If it were truly valid, it has been around for about thirty years now (?) there would have been more studies proving its efficacy and there is not.

My son is finally on the right anti-depressant and is working with an educational therapist who specifically works with kids and young adults on the autism spectrum with social issues. He is doing so much better. Early days and he has yet to venture back out into the world as we know it but he is so much better than he was when I first posted on this website and I am grateful.

The goal is to have him enroll in one class this summer, his choice and go from there. He may never want a formal college education but I hope he will choose some kind of technical school for training.

The change in him from taking an effective anti depressant and working with a therapist who is teaching him social skills is dramatic. I am seeing the person he used to be again and it is wonderful. I am cautiously hopeful for him now.

By the way, my son had the neuro feed back "therapist's" number right away, he said, after our first meeting: 'She is weird and she just wants to sell us stuff', however the EEG intrigued him so we had that bit done, after that as I wrote above it turned out to be a blind alley.

The American Academy of Pediatrics does list neurofeedback (differs from bio-feedback) as evidence based treatment for ADHD and anxiety, but not AS. We decided to try it anyway, since my daughter also has an anxiety disorder and a TOVA test indicated possible ADD; we wanted to exhaust all reasonable options before trying medication. She went in twice a week for 45 minute sessions. They also had her do 15 min. of interactive metronome, followed by a 45 min. CBT therapy. We saw terrific results after 30-40 sessions. She was calmer, happier, able to focus better and had a huge decrease in the frequency and intensity of meltdowns. Her TOVA test came back in the normal range. We kept up with the treatment and while we continued to see some improvements, the differences were not as significant as they had been, so we stopped at 60 sessions, mostly because of the drain on time and treasure ($1,500 every 20 sessions and 3.5 hours per week, not including the drive).

All in all I'm glad we tried it as it really did help with her mood, attention, and obsessions, but we didn't see any significant changes in her ability to read body language, relate to others or improvement with sensory issues, and motor skills.
She is now on Buspar for her anxiety, but I haven't noticed a big change with that, either.