Enterhealth, a premier drug and alcohol addiction treatment company, recently started using neurofeedback at Enterhealth Ranch residential treatment facility and at the Enterhealth Outpatient Center of Excellence with great success. Because neurofeedback treatment can be uniquely tailored to each individual, it is an incredibly useful tool in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction, especially in cases involving dual-diagnosis.
All of Enterhealth’s treatment is based on the latest National Institutes of Health research, utilizing a science-based approach implemented by board-certified, addiction-trained physicians, psychiatrists, nurses and therapists – and neurofeedback fits perfectly into this approach.
“Abusing substances such as alcohol and illicit drugs impacts the brain in many ways, and advanced diagnostic imaging technology shows us that heavy, chronic drug or alcohol abuse results in significant alteration of brain activity,” said Dr. Joshua M. Masino, Psy.D., director of neurological services. “The brainwaves become out of synch, much like an orchestra with instruments that are out of tune – or playing the wrong song altogether. Neurofeedback therapy offers a way to return the brainwaves back to their proper state.”
Neurofeedback is a type of biofeedback in which brainwaves are measured by EEG to produce a signal that acts as feedback to the subject. This feedback signal, commonly an audio/visual signal provided while watching a movie or playing a video game, is used to teach subjects how to self-regulate brain function using positive reinforcement for desired brain activity and negative feedback for brain activity that is not desired.
When patients receive neurofeedback therapy, they watch a program that is a bit like a cross between a video and a video game. While watching the program, an EEG machine monitors their brainwaves. When a patient’s brainwaves correspond with the desired pattern, they may continue watching the program. If the patient’s brainwaves start to deviate from the desired pattern, the EEG machine detects this and alters the video, upping the contrast to stark white or dark black, and the accompanying audio may change as well. These changes in the video are the negative feedback. This process is similar the childhood game of hiding something and telling the person when they are getting “warmer” or “colder.”
Essentially, neurofeedback is a process of reinforcing specific brainwaves that correspond with desired behavior. Or, to put it more plainly, neurofeedback is designed to teach the mind and body to operate in an optimal state in order to improve behavioral, cognitive, physical, and emotional experiences.
“Neurofeedback treatment teaches patients how to properly manage their mood and emotions, as well as improves their sleep,” added Masino. “By incorporating neurofeedback therapy into our addiction treatment program, we give patients the skills they need to help them gain control, leading to decreased chances of relapse and higher success rates.”
This approach has been found to have an especially dramatic increase in the success rates for those with a dual-diagnosis. That is, the person is undergoing treatment for addiction where there are other, sometimes multiple psychological disorders that need to be addressed at the same time. In combination with medical maintenance, neurofeedback therapy has also been shown to greatly reduce drug or alcohol cravings – allowing patients to focus on treatment and further increasing the likelihood of a successful recovery.
As an emerging technique used to treat addiction, the incorporation of the therapy at Enterhealth gives our medical team another tool to use in our comprehensive science-based treatment program.
