Educational Systems

I am an educational psychologist interested in finding alternative treatments for psychological disorders that actually work! I want all students to be successful in their educational pursuits. I believe we can greatly reduce the amount of medication used for the treatment of ADD, OCD, Depression etc.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Drug free treatments for OCD, ADD, Aspergers etc

School phobia, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), Aspbergers (high functioning autism), ADD etc. are all treated with the medical model by various medicines. I have done a great deal of investigating, and am seeking more information, on the efficacy and success of using alternative therapies to treat these prevalent disorders. As a school psychologist, I have direct evidence of the above "disorders" impacting increasingly more students. The problem I see is that more and more students come to school either drugged with uppers or downers depending on the "presenting problems". I am required to assess many of these children to determine if they meet the basic elgibility requirement for special education. How can I interpret testing that was completed on children who were/ are taking prescription medications? Of course, ideally we would take the children off all meds prior to taking the assessments. I think there must be a better way!
I have discovered in my search different drug free approaches to treatment. I hope I am ok mentioning as example the Drake Institute. They claim drug free treatment for children that have ADD, Autism etc. My understanding is that they use brain wave technology that monitors the Alpha, Beta, Gamma wave frequencies of the client. The client is to watch a computer monitor which displays the results of the brain waves. By watching the results, the clients brain automatically knows how to adjust to correct frequencies. In doing so, the brain is reset to the "normal" brain pattern levels. After several sessions, depending on the severity of the disorder of the client, the abnormality decreases and is "cured".
I have personally witnessed a student who appeared cured in a similar treatment program. It was not Drake, but a similar program. This particular student had a very bad case of OCD, who would not go to school. In fact, his problem was so bad we sent him to a private treatment facility for students with emotional disturbance. After a year or so, this student showed up again ready to enroll in our school. Amazingly, this student was very well- alert, calm, happy. I found out he went to a therapist that used a "brain measuring monitor". The machine was called an eeg (Electro encephlanagram sp?). The student watched movies on a monitor while electrodes that measured the Alpha Beta Gamma waves of his brain were attached to his head. When the students brain waves were in synch, the monitor would display the movies. When his brain went out of synch, the screen would turn red so he could not see the movie. After 19 sessions, this student had no more OCD!!! I personally am a witness to this seemingly incredible drug free treatment. As a psychologist, I am interested in doing research in this area. I am currently obtaining the equipment that can provide this treatment. I am still quite skeptical and am thinking that I should provide treatments for free for a while to see how well, if at all, this works. My question is what you think about this. Have you had any experience with drug free treatments for various disorders? Would you think it a good idea to do research in this area? Please let me know, and I will try to answer your questions. SB

2 Comments:

At 4:33 PM, Blogger ButterflyLion said...

Sam, that sounds interesting. Have you have any more experiences with electroencephalogram (EEG)?

 
At 12:36 PM, Blogger Sam H. Bouman said...

Yes in the years since I posted this blog, EEG's and other biofeedback tools are excellent for the short term therapeutic effects. Long term results, however, not so much effective. Many relapse. I would like to see any empirical studies on the long term benefits of eeg that is not supported by the companies that have a vested interest in the positive outcomes. So far I have not seen any good ones. Have you?

 

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