Veterans Archives - Page 3 of 3 - EEG INFO

Veteran’s Day – 2009

I have the impression that my newspaper, The Los Angeles Times, printed more articles on veterans’ issues today than they printed articles about Labor on Labor Day. Veterans’ issues are ok to write about; we can show that at least our hearts are in the right place. Labor issues have become more inconvenient. But veterans’ issues include the matter of returning to the labor force once they have been returned to health.

We now know how to recover veterans from all kinds of mental health issues through neurofeedback comprehensively, cost-effectively and quickly—regardless of whether we are talking about traumatic brain injury, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, or other less devastating mental dysfunctions. The barriers to the diffusion of our innovation into actual practice are clearly institutional. Meanwhile, lip service continues to be given to the issues.

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Our Declining State of Health

Last May, Science Magazine featured a review of a recent study of human health going back some 10,000 years. Surprisingly, perhaps, our state of health has been declining generally over the last 3,000 years, coinciding essentially with the broad adoption of agriculture. The trends are not subtle, apparently. Statures have shrunk, and there was an increase in skeletal lesions, tuberculosis, and leprosy. People started living closer together, and in more intimate contact with livestock—the formula for increases in contagion in general, and of animal-to-human viral transfer in particular.

The switch to grain-based diets had further consequences for dental health, with cavities and tooth loss becoming more of a problem. Vitamin deficiency diseases such as rickets and scurvy became more prevalent during the Dark Ages. This trend only began to be broken in the middle of nineteenth century, presumably due to increased trade, better sanitation, improvements in medicine, and better weather after the Little Ice Age. Since the 1950’s, however, the overall trend has once again been downward, and this is showing up even in trends in stature, which can be taken as a kind of integrative index to health status.

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The Crisis in Health Care

There is ongoing talk about whether too much is being spent on health care, while there is no such discussion about other items of social expenditure. Health care is going to be a key growth engine for our economy going forward, regardless of anything that may be done in the near term. When health care was last dealt with in 1993, a reform proposal was sent to Congress that promised to restructure health care. But the existing interest groups managed to kill the proposal. Now that all of the stake holders are at the table in the latest effort to reform health care, it is guaranteed that nothing radically new will make its way into the final bill. Only incremental fixes will be tolerated, and only under condition that the existing interest groups will not be harmed. Yes, it is heart-warming that the AMA, big PhRMA, and the insurance industry are all on board with the reform effort, but that also means that the outcome will be well within their comfort zone.

Even the proposal to complement the insurance-based system with a government plan is seen as a program-stopper. When it comes right down to it, the insurance companies really don’t want to compete against the government-run system, and it’s clearly not because governments can’t run health care. They are doing so everywhere else in the civilized world, and doing it more cheaply and better than we are. Our government is also doing it in Medicare, and it’s doing a darn good job of it under the current constraints. If the current insurance-based system is to remain the model, why don’t we ask, just for the sake of argument, what would happen if we have them take over education as well.

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Recovery from PTSD: A Vietnam Veteran

We have just experienced a remarkably quick recovery from PTSD symptoms in a Vietnam veteran. The case is illustrative of the more rapid pace of recovery that is achievable with the latest neurofeedback techniques that encompass the infra-low range of EEG frequencies. The veteran has had a forty-year history of PTSD, and was rescued from homelessness by the Salvation Army here in Los Angeles. He came to our offices for intensive neurofeedback training through the auspices of the Salvation Army. In exchange for our providing services at no cost, the veteran has allowed us to make his case history available for the benefit of other clinicians.

For scientific purposes, the veteran has agreed to undergo pre-post quantitative EEG analysis (courtesy of QMetrx) and SPECT imaging (courtesy of the Amen Clinics). As the training is still on-going, these pre-post comparisons are not yet available. However, we do have initial symptom-tracking data that already tell quite a story. Symptoms are assessed on the basis of self-report at typically three-session intervals. Severity is rated on a ten-point scale. Results for the first eighteen training sessions are shown in Figure 1. Overall symptom reduction reached 50% by session ten, and was more than 80% by session eighteen. The symptom list was broadly inclusive, and covered a number of areas not considered to be classically associated with PTSD. Eleven out of the twenty major symptoms were rated at zero by session 18. None were rated higher than 4 out of ten by session 18. The picture is one of broad improvement in self-regulatory capacity.

The picture is actually even more dramatic when data are segregated for the symptoms commonly associated with PTSD. These are shown in Figure 2. With regard to PTSD symptoms, overall improvement reached 50% within three sessions, and reached 93% in 18 sessions. Even more significantly, nightmares, flashbacks, suicidal thoughts, and binging and purging were all eliminated within three sessions. These were the most troublesome PTSD-related symptoms. The most persistent symptoms related to the quality of sleep. At the first QEEG session it became obvious that the veteran was suffering from sleep apnea. He was unable to stay awake for the QEEG assessment. This was a problem during the early neurofeedback sessions as well. By session 18, he was getting through entire alpha-theta sessions without falling asleep. Other persistent symptoms relate to motor function and mobility. Currently the veteran remains confined to a wheelchair. The improvement in hypertension is not entirely attributable to neurofeedback: as a result of the training, the veteran was motivated to be more consistent in taking his blood pressure medication. Continue reading “Recovery from PTSD: A Vietnam Veteran”

Homecoming for Veterans

PTSD and Neurofeedback Video Case Study Americans universally express appreciation for the service of our troops overseas. Yet so little is done to support the re-acclimation of our courageous soldiers upon their return home. This problem, which has been with us through many wars, will be exacerbated in the near future with the impending return of tens of thousands of veterans from Iraq — many of whom have served multiple tours of duty.

Every soldier loses something in the battlefield. Certainly, the profound effects of PTSD, depression, and traumatic brain injury are only part of the story. Extended tours of duty under the most challenging conditions of urban warfare have made these and other problems worse. Medical advances are now allowing many soldiers to survive injuries that would not have been survivable in previous wars. But there is no comparable remedy for the mental health consequences suffered by the soldiers. These veterans need assistance they are not currently receiving as they come home to rebuild their lives, their families and their businesses. Continue reading “Homecoming for Veterans”