How Neurofeedback Can Help with Depression
You may ask, how can neurofeedback help with depression? Depression is a common mood disorder accompanied by severe symptoms which may affect how you think, feel, live day to day, sleep, eat or work. Chronic depression can severely interfere with your daily activities and your overall quality of life. The actual root of someone’s depression can be quite elusive.
Many different factors together can result in the expression of depressive symptoms. However, studies have noted that one key aspect throughout depression is an imbalance in hemispheric brain function. Your brain is split in two hemispheres, connected by a large bundle of nerves called the corpus colosseum. Now the ‘right brain is for math and left is for art’ statement that we have all heard is not very accurate. Some aspects such as language are more unilateral processes, however, the two halves of your brain are generally symmetrical and corporative. Communication between the two halves is crucial for adequate functioning. In studies of people with depression, it is noted that the right side of the brain is typically overactive while the left side of the brain is under activated. With this in mind, we conduct a full brain mapping analysis to identify which areas/networks are abnormally functioning.
Once the abnormalities are determined, we can design a custom training protocol to help normalize and balance the two hemispheres. Typical protocols for depressive patients focus on supressing the right hemisphere while activating the left hemisphere. Balancing the two hemispheres results in an overall reduction of depression symptoms as well as overall better cognitive functioning. Patients who scored 20 (higher number is more severe symptoms) on the Beck scale of depression before treatment scored 4 after their neurofeedback training is complete. Like other neurofeedback treatments, since we are training your brain to work properly on its own, the positive effects are long lasting.
Call Harper Therapy at 813-434-3639 to learn more about how neurofeedback can help with depression.
