Treating PTSD with Mindfulness-based Trauma Therapy
Military stress
One person’s brain waves can actually synchronize to another person’s heart
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is typically treated with medication or psychotherapy. However, conventional methods do not always work for all veterans, which is why researchers are constantly trying to develop novel forms of treatment. A study at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina found that allowing PTSD patients to listen to their brain activity helped reduced symptoms like anxiety, insomnia and depressive mood.
Researchers used a noninvasive technology known as high-resolution, relational, resonance-based, electroencephalic mirroring (HIRREM). It consists of a system that uses scalp sensors to read the electrical signals in a patient’s brain. Computer software algorithms then turn the readings into audio frequencies that are played back in almost real time.
The process allows patients to hear their own brainwaves. The brain essentially makes an immediate connection between its own patterns and the sound. Upon detecting any irregularities, it adjusts into a quiet, balanced pattern, thereby helping to reduce PTSD symptoms.
Lead study author Charles H. Tegeler, a neurology professor at the Wake Forest School of Medicine, said the findings were promising. However, more research was needed as the study used a small sample size of 18 people that included veterans and current service members with PTSD. In addition, the placebo effect might have influenced the outcome as subjects were told about the process beforehand. In the future, the researchers hope to seek the Food and Drug Administration’s approval to use the brainwave technology to treat PTSD.
FEBRUARY 02, 2018
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is typically treated with medication or psychotherapy. However, conventional methods do not always work for all veterans, which is why researchers are constantly trying to develop novel forms of treatment. A study at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina found that allowing PTSD patients to listen to their brain activity helped reduced symptoms like anxiety, insomnia and depressive mood.
Researchers used a noninvasive technology known as high-resolution, relational, resonance-based, electroencephalic mirroring (HIRREM). It consists of a system that uses scalp sensors to read the electrical signals in a patient’s brain. Computer software algorithms then turn the readings into audio frequencies that are played back in almost real time.
The process allows patients to hear their own brainwaves. The brain essentially makes an immediate connection between its own patterns and the sound. Upon detecting any irregularities, it adjusts into a quiet, balanced pattern, thereby helping to reduce PTSD symptoms.
Lead study author Charles H. Tegeler, a neurology professor at the Wake Forest School of Medicine, said the findings were promising. However, more research was needed as the study used a small sample size of 18 people that included veterans and current service members with PTSD. In addition, the placebo effect might have influenced the outcome as subjects were told about the process beforehand. In the future, the researchers hope to seek the Food and Drug Administration’s approval to use the brainwave technology to treat PTSD.
