Neurofeedback Therapy Offers Hope For Epilepsy Patients

If you suffer from epilepsy, you know what it's like to have no control over your body. There are some activities such as driving a car or swimming alone that you may be forced to forgo because you never know when a seizure will hit. Even if you are able to control your seizures through medication, many drugs used to treat epilepsy have adverse side effects, including a general feeling of tiredness or a sense of emotional numbness. Doctors may have led you to believe that you have no choice but to live with the restrictions of epilepsy, and the effects of the medications that treat it. New evidence and case studies, however, point to neurofeedback therapy as an effective treatment for epilepsy.

Neurofeedback is also known as biofeedback for the brain. As an epileptic, you may have already heard of biofeedback, which can help you prepare for a seizure by teaching your brain to recognize when it is coming. Neurofeedback trains your brain in a different way; it actually changes the way your brain works by rewarding it when it functions correctly. This is done through the simple use of the electrical impulses that come from your brain, which are run through a machine that visually or audibly responds to the signals it sends.

There is much evidence that the brain can be trained to prevent most seizures from ever occurring. One study conducted in 2001 showed that 82% of patients with epilepsy who were treated with neurofeedback therapy significantly improved without the use of medication. Most of these patients showed a huge reduction in seizure activity and in many cases this change was long term.

Another group of researchers conducted a different type of study involving neurofeedback. In this study, they used neurofeedback to actually induce seizures by training the brain to follow seizure-causing patterns. This experiment was also highly successful, demonstrating that neurofeedback can train the brain to function within almost any pattern or wavelength.

If you think that neurofeedback might be the epilepsy treatment you're looking for, you may want to find a therapist in your area who will conduct a Quantitative EEG assessment before you actually begin treatment. While a QEEG is not necessary for many disorders that are t reatable with neurofeedback, in the case of epilepsy it can provide your therapist with very helpful information about how your brain is functioning.

Neurofeedback is non-invasive and painless. Neurofeedback therapy is usually without side effects other than the fact that some people can feel sleepy after a session. With all the evidence in its favor, neurofeedback shows great promise for those with epilepsy. And it could very well prove to be your means of finally getting your life back.