Neurofeedback Treatment Can Reduce Depression Symptoms

Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide and one of the most common mental health conditions in the United States, but neurofeedback can make a difference in depression symptoms.

How Does Neurofeedback Work?

Neurofeedback is a type of biofeedback that was pioneered in the 1960s. Neurofeedback uses the brain’s unique ability to learn to guide it back into balance. A course of neurofeedback involves a brainmap (or qEEG) to assess how your brain is functioning at rest.

When patients report symptoms from depression, we can often see that in their brainmap. By matching up what patients tell us and a brainmap, we can create a custom training protocol to exercise the brain.

Typical neurofeedback sessions involved relaxing while watching a video for about 30 minutes. Patients have sensors attached to their head in specific locations where we can see brainwaves in real-time. This technology gives your brain feedback by dimming the picture to encourage it to create more or less of certain types of brainwaves. As your brain practices, it learns in the same way you’d learn to drive. The more it learns, the more balance is restored, and the fewer depression symptoms remain.

How Does Depression Show Up on a Brain Map?

Studies have shown that negative moods and depression can stem from an imbalance of Alpha brainwaves between the left and right sides of the brain.  This finding can be directly applied in treatment with neurofeedback for depression.

Controlled studies in college-age students showed that mood was improved when trained with neurofeedback for depression.  Neurofeedback resulted in more positive thinking and reduced the negative ways of thinking associated with depression.

Studies have also been done with depressed adults and neurofeedback.  Significant improvements in mood were noted with neurofeedback.

Have Questions About Neurofeedback? Call Us

Located in Wheaton, Illinois just 25 miles west of Chicago, our clinic, Neurofeedback Health His Way, offers free one-on-one evaluations, so you can see if a course of neurofeedback might be right for you. Contact us or call us at 630-254-0766 to speak with Dr. Kristin Klocko to learn more and read more about other conditions neurofeedback can treat.