Neurofeedback Treatment for ADHD/ADD

[LL_Mom]

Hello,

I'm wondering if anyone has tried neurofeedback/biofeedback treatments for ADHD/ADD. If so, please share your thoughts and experiences. There is one practitioner in my local area, and the treatments are quite expensive and not covered by insurance. I'm interested in learning more from parents that have tried this for their kids. Thanks for reading.

[Mamasad]

Hi, my son is 5. About 8 months ago we had a little baby girl at the same time as him moving to an older classroom in school where they wouldn’t nap. The combination of all the change made him extremely aggressive at home. It was absolute hell. We took him to 2 different behavioral therapists and it was a joke ... he was totally playing them while he would throw toys around the room. The therapists did help my husband and I understand the importance of positive reinforcement.

I then heard about eurofeedback and how it worked for a co-workers son and decided to give it a try. We met with the doctor and the whole thing sounded too good to be true, but given that is not invasive... other than the money we had nothing to loose. He had 3 sessions weekly for a total of 35 sessions. My child is anxious and can get very aggressive. At the worst (around the time his sister was born I “measured” his behavior as a 10... with 1-3 being “normal” child behavior and 10 being unbearable. After 12 sessions or so, we saw an improvement. He stopped scratching me and his outbursts were less intense and lasted less time. So instead of one hour screaming outside my bedroom for example, he now was doing it for 20 minutes. Instead of trying to really hurt me he was trying to just hurt me a little. It was very important for the treatment to work, that we incorporated a rewards system for positive behavior. Which we did. Towards the end of the treatment I saw such a great improvement. We moved from that 10 (where I was constantly afraid of my child and would cry every night of desperation because this situation was out of my control) to about a 3-4. We also started taekowndo 3 times a week and that was a good outlet to get his energy out.

For a while we felt like the smartest parents on earth. I was naive to believe the neurofeedback “fixed” him completely. But things have gotten bad again over the last month. Neirofeedback definitely helped but is no magic solution. We have never seen 10 behavior again. However is rare for us to have days where intensity is 3-4...we are at 6-8 outbursts. He yells horrible things at us and downtime is our worst enemy. .

Would I go back and do the neurofeedback again? Yes. But you need to manage your expectations and make sure you find a reputable place. We were also extremely persistent with the insurance. They ended up reimbursing us 40% of the treatment cost.

Wishing you the best!

[LL_Mom in reply to Mamasad]

I'm so sorry to hear about the challenges with our son. Thank you for sharing your story and experiences with neurofeedback. It sounds like in your case, you found a reputable practitioner. I will call the one--and only--practitioner in my area and ask to get feedback from some of his patients. It's very expensive as you know. I will also check with my insurance company, but am not holding out much hope that they will reimburse for the sessions. Good luck for you going forward. I would say that my daughter has REALLY calmed down a lot as she's gotten older. She'll be 13 in 2 weeks. I remember those desperate times when she was that 6 year old kicking the door, while was on the other side holding it closed. Fortunately, her outbursts gradually decreased in intensity over the years. She saw an OT for sensory issues and saw a number of psychotherapists--with mixed success.

Unfortunately, though, some of the anger has turned inward. We have her meeting with psychotherapist again regularly and have also decided to homeschool as a way to help alleviate some of her stress. She definitely is struggling...as many teens do. But we know that her behaviors can be atypical and she also admitted to cutting herself a few times. Anyway, I will continue to try to help her find ways to regulate mood and learn to cope in healthier ways to the sensory processing issues....