Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Neurofeedback for ADHD, now covered by Blue Cross

...in Michigan. I thought this might be of interest to those of you who may have heard about neurofeedback but had reservations about it not being tried and true:

"Neurofeedback is now recognized as an effective alternative to medication for children under 18 by Blue Cross Blue Shield in Michigan. Neurofeedback is covered for treating ADHD in children under 18:

http://www.bcbsm.com/newsletter/therecord/record_1013/Record_1013m.shtml#!

scroll down to codes 90875 and 90876 to read policy provisions)"

Hopefully, policies in other states will soon follow as this is an excellent first option for parents that are reticent to medicate their children. I documented my daughter’s experience last year here:

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/149822/1.html

While I think this is a huge step forward for the health care industry to acknowledge the effectiveness of NF, I must include a caveat for anyone considering it:

There are 2 very different schools of thought in Neurofeedback, “Entrain and Migrate” and “Dynamical” in a nutshell:

Traditional NF takes a QEEG (static reading of all of the brainwave activity at one moment in time) and develops a protocol of pushing the brain towards a more “normal” or “average” state. This can be very effective, but you must trust the professional to decide what is best for your brain and it is very possible to overtrain and experience negative side effects. Also, this method assumes that “average” is good. For gifted children, average is actually “less than” if you get my drift.

Dynamical NF looks at the brain as a complex integrated system that is capable of optimizing itself when given feedback about its own activities, so it does not push the brain in any direction but rather provides instantaneous feedback which the brain uses to fix/adjust itself. It’s just like giving the brain a mirror – if you walk by a mirror, it’s almost impossible not to adjust something about yourself, your hair or your posture etc, you do this without even thinking about it. The brain responds the same way when given instantaneous feedback.

This is a gross simplification but hopefully a good starting point for anyone considering NF to research it some more.

Nik

Thanks. We're not in MI but I have been wondering about that.

Nik,

I read some of your previous posts about your daughter and neurofeedback. Did the neurofeedback help with the written expression disorder?

We are going to try it with our son and we are hoping to see improvement with the ease of writing. His problem is taking a very long time to produce anything. It really is an output problem.