Addressing Mood Stability and Resilience with Neurofeedback:
 

         Neurofeedback has been used for many years for optimum performance for students, professional athletes, performers in the arts, and professionals in the workplace.        Neurofeedback is appropriately used –along with the usual psychiatric tools -- for anxiety disorders as well as in treating other mood disorders like major depression, dysthymia, and bipolar disorder.  Sometimes it is a preferred approach for patients who do not want to use medications, those for whom medications were not effective or not fully effective, or when medications were not tolerable.   
 

     Neurofeedback can be used without medications, or to augment medication treatment.  (This is when patients are on full doses of medications, and still experiencing mood symptoms).  It can be used along with medications in order to minimize medication burden (to enable effective use of lower doses of medications, thus reducing side effect burden).
 

      Other times, patients seek NF – once they have achieved remission on medications – to see if they might be able to taper their medications while using neurofeedback to stabilize their mood.  In this case, NF is being used to improve mood stability through the medication withdrawal process and afterward, to see if the brain can learn to maintain mood stability when the help of medication is withdrawn and eventually absent.  And to see if the mood remains stable despite stressors that would have triggered relapse of mood issues in the past. 
 

     In other words, neurofeedback is used to train the brain to be more self-righting.  This is in the pursuit of mood resilience.  This opportunity is enhanced when psychotherapy and the other aspects of a wellness - oriented treatment mentioned above are also employed.
 

Why Neurofeedback can be a particularly good option for Mood?
 

     One benefit of using neurofeedback in treating mood is that often other positive effects are achieved, like improved attention or sleep or relaxation or improved performance in broad and lasting ways. Also, neurofeedback generally does not tend to create ongoing negative physiologic side effects like medications sometimes do.  If there are negative effects, generally the protocol is adjusted to eliminate that.

Are the effects of neurofeedback sustained?
 

     Once an effective course of neurofeedback has been completed, sometimes patients are able to taper medications and remain well without neurofeedback.  Others are able to remain in sustained remission on less medications.  Some patients remain off meds but receive periodic “refresher” NF sessions to sustain remission.  So the response is very individual.   Exploring this involves careful ongoing observation as changes are made in the treatment.