Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Exercise, food and other supports
Neurofeedback rests on a tidy idea: in ADHD the slower theta rhythm shows up when the faster beta rhythm should be running, so the training rewards you for shifting the balance. Knowing the idea is worth a few minutes, because it is what the brochure is built on.
Electrodes sit on the scalp, a screen animates when the signal moves the wanted way, and the person practises staying in a state of relaxed alertness. What the signal cannot tell you is what the rest of the brain is doing, since it only reports from the few places the electrodes are stuck. When a family arrives having read all this, being able to describe it accurately buys you the right to say anything about whether it works.
Qur’an and Sunnah
who reflect on the creation of the heavens and earth (Quran 3:191). Understanding how a thing is supposed to work is part of that reflecting, even when the answer turns out to be that it does not.
ٱلَّذِينَ يَذۡكُرُونَ ٱللَّهَ قِيَٰمࣰ ا وَقُعُودࣰ ا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمۡ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلۡقِ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقۡتَ هَٰذَا بَٰطِلࣰ ا سُبۡحَٰنَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ ٱلنَّارِ
who remember God standing, sitting, and lying down, who reflect on the creation of the heavens and earth: ‘Our Lord! You have not created all this without purpose- You are far above that!- so protect us from the torment of the Fire
Qur’an 3:191read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A triple blind trial in adults compared EEG neurofeedback with sham neurofeedback and with cognitive behavioural group therapy, and the real thing did not beat the sham. A separate small early stage trial used real time fMRI feedback with adolescents and did find some symptom improvement against an active control, so feedback based approaches are not all one thing, though that study was tiny and preliminary.
Schönenberg M, Wiedemann E, Schneidt A, Scheeff J, Logemann A, Keune PM, Hautzinger M. (2017). Neurofeedback, sham neurofeedback, and cognitive-behavioural group therapy in adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: a triple-blind, randomised, controlled trial.. The lancet. Psychiatry doi
Alegria AA, Wulff M, Brinson H, Barker GJ, Norman LJ, Brandeis D, Stahl D, David AS, Taylor E, Giampietro V, Rubia K. (2017). Real-time fMRI neurofeedback in adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.. Human brain mapping doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
You can only have a fair conversation about a treatment once you can describe what it is actually claiming to do.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
If you are thinking about a weighted blanket or vest for a child, let an occupational therapist set the weight. It is a specific number for a specific body, not something to guess at in a shop.
Turn the socks inside out so the seam sits away from the toes, cut the label out and print the size onto the fabric instead, and look at seamless clothing. These cost pennies against a course of therapy and they work by teatime.
If someone has genuine positional vertigo, get it treated, and do not expect the treatment to touch their ADHD. Both things can be true at the same time.