Bio-Psy Vol 1 #5 January 27,1997
BioPsy Cyberzine volume 1, issue #5
Published and Edited by Rob Kall, FUTUREHEALTH Inc, biofeedback and Stress
Management tool supplier
founder and organizer of the 5th annual Winter Conference on Brain Function/EEG,
Modification & Training: Neurofeedback, qEEG, ADD, Sound/Light, Consciousness,
Peak Performance Advanced Meeting Colloquium (formerly Known as the Key West EEG
Meeting)
Best viewed maximized. If you don't want to receive further issues of this
cyberzine/journal, reply with >>cancel BioPsy<< in the subject header.
Feel free to forward this intact, entire cyberzine to anyone you feel might be interested
in seeing it. Posting to websites, listserve groups or BBSs is also permitted as
long as the entire contents is posted.
Editorial material wanted: if you've written something of interest to fellow travelers,
we'd like to have an opportunity to evaluate it for our publication.First rights or
reprints. Announcements about meetings will also be considered for inclusion.
Reviewers wanted. Send us your reviews of books, tapes, movies, software, tests,
techniques-- whatever you think BioPsy readers will be interested in.
Past issues of BioPsy are available at FUTUREHEALTH's and ROb Kall's Website
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SMILE/
and in the library of Compuserve's Mind/Brain/Body Sciences Forum (go MIND)
--------------TABLE OF CONTENTS----------------------
1- Editor's greeting
2--Final schedule announcement for the Palm Springs Winter
Conference on Brain Function/EEG, Modification & Training: Neurofeedback,
qEEG, ADD, Sound/Light, Consciousness, Peak Performance Advanced
Meeting Colloquium (formerly Known as the Key West EEG Meeting
3- Help Wanted: Experienced Neurofeedback Therapist--
4-Used Equipment
5- New instrument review. Low Cost a digital and audio thermal bofeedback::
6- EEG/ Consciousness Special Interest Group Formation Announcement, meeting
7- Check out Quotation Central, which specializes in mind/body quotations, (and links to
other quotation websites, at: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SMILE/quotatio/htm
8- Check out Positivity Central. The goal of this website is to build momentum for a
field, cybercommunity and dialgoue which explores aspects of positive experience,
feelings, states, actions, beliefs, visions, communities, etcetera. The site includes some
of Rob Kall's personal works, plus a growing list of links to sites which explore
happiness, laughter, smiling, and eventually, other dimensions of positivity. Please
let us know about any websites which might fit, including your own.
Positivity Central,
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SMILEposctrl.html
where you can find:
--the KPEI Positive Experience inventory, created to help people think about and remember
past positive experiences, to begin noticing current ones and planning for future ones
-- Rob Kall's POsitivity Training Page, with a chart of Positivity/Negativity traits
- A link to a Japanese 1996 conference on cross cultural conceptions of happiness
-quotations on laughter, freedom, positive
9) USE OF MEDICATION FOR ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER DOUBLES
10- GSR, smiling and
11- Light Therapy Affects Serotonin Levels
12- Announcement to BCIA EEG Certificants
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
Editor's Greeting,
From Rob Kall
Bio-Psy, the internet newsletter on Biofeedback and mind body topics is growing very
nicely, in terms of readership, with the last issue reaching well over 3,000 readers. Part
of the rason for this is our policy to allow readers to forward the complete, un-edited
version of the netzine to other friends or listserve groups. If you like the information
and message provided by BioPsy, please forward it. Or let colleagues know there is no
charge for being a subscriber, and they can begin receiving it by dropping us a note..
Bio-Psy is also available at our website:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SMILE/
1--Final schedule announcement for the Palm Springs Winter
Conference on Brain Function/EEG, Modification & Training: Neurofeedback,
qEEG, ADD, Sound/Light, Consciousness, Peak Performance Advanced
Meeting Colloquium (formerly Known as the Key West EEG Meeting Detailed workshop
descriptions available upon request. Registration information available upon request.
Brief Schedule (detailed workshop descriptions being sent in next Bio-Psy cyberzine
Thursday Feb 20
Neurofeedback (NF)
Foundations Course
Morning9-12: Joel Lubar
EEG & neurofedback basics, ADD/ADHD BF
Afternoon1-4:30:
Valdeane Brown
5 phase approach
Siegfried Othmer
NF approaches
Evening 6-9:
Nancy White
Alpha Theta trng
Paul Swingle
beginners grand rounds
Thurs afternoon
workshop:
WA1-5 Jay Gunkelman: : Advanced Topics in QEEG
Thursday Evening
WB 6-10 Peter Rosenfeld workshop: prep course for EEG exam
Opening Reception: vegetable crudite, cash bar
networking , singing
______________________
Due to the nature of this meeting, last minute additions to the schedule are likely.
Dress for the meeting is CASUAL--
shorts and tee shirts-- .
Friday Feb 21 Advanced Meeting
7:00 George Fuller Von Bozzay reading the brain from the skin
7:15 Cliff Corman Using Tova to evaluate optimal performance under medication to determine
BF training goals
7:30 Jay Gunkelman: Pre & Post QEEG in Successful NF Remediation
8:00Daniel Hoffman& Steve Stockdale QEEG & NF
9:00 Break
9:15 Rob Kall: Opening Talk
9:35Barry Sterman Lecture: Topographic EEG profiles: a new classification for neurological
& psychiatric disorders?
10:25 Karl Pribram A Power Spectral Density Analysis of Brain Electrical Activity11:15
Break
11:30 Siegfried Othmer Mechanisms
12:00 Gary Schwartz & Linda Russek Neurotherapy and the Heart;: The
Challenge of Energy Cardiology.
1:00 Lunch
2-6:00 workshops
7:00 PM David Siever Sound Light Entrainment research: insomnia, pain
7:30 Hershel Toomim Spectral Photo- metric feedback of Brain blood flow
8:00 Dan Maust Wideband FB
8:15
8:30 Richard Gevirtz: Autononomic Control of Muscle Pain
8:50 break
9:00Paul Swingle Grand Rounds Panel
Workshops
WC2-6 Barry Sterman & Chris Mann Sleep Disorder med & EEG BF trtmnts
WD2-6 Michael Hutchison Peak Performance; New Tools & Techniques
WE2-4 Clifford L. Corman The T.O.V.A.(R) in Clinical Practice
WF2-4 Gary Schwartz & Linda Russek :An EnergySystems Approach to NF
WG2-6 Judith Lubar Relationship between EEG changes, Stages of Learning, and Long
Term Success in Neurofeedback
WH4-6 Michael Linden : Everything you always wanted to know about NFB & ADD but forgot
to ask: The nuts & bolts of testing and treating ADD Clients
WJ4-6 Ken Tachiki & Elmar Weiler Disease Pathology and NFB Procedures
WK4-6 Richard Gevirtz
Saturday, Feb 22
7:00 Dan Maust Feedback Made Simple
7:15 Tom Collura Brainmaster Project
7:30 Julian Isaacs Alpha & ADD,
8:00 Michael Linden : Everything you always wanted to know about NFB & ADD but forgot
to ask: The nuts & bolts of testing and treating ADD Clients
8:50 Break
9:15 Lynda & Michael Thomson Training Results with ADD Clients: I NF training
for Attention Deficit Disorder in adults as effective as similar training carried out with
children.
10:05 Thom Hartmann: What Maslow Overlooked: The Need To Feel Alive; Adjusting the
Thalamic Faucet for ADD and Beyond
10:55 Break
11:20 Joel Lubar Effects of EEG Entrain ment on QEEG, Neurological correlates of intense
engrossment in audiotry tasks
12:10 Judith Lubar:Therapist Role in NF treatment of ADD/HD and Addiction
1:00 Lunch
2:00 Optional (fee)Workshop
Evening
7:00 Jon Cowan Concentration Relaxation Cycle
7:30 Carla Nelson: What the World Needs to Know About NF Before It Will Beat
a Path to Your Door
8:00Vince Monastra assessing ADHD
8:15
8:45 Break
9:00 Joe Kamiya: Panel: History of NF
Workshops
WL2-6 PM Joel Lubar WS: Referential Vs Bi-polar assessment, databases and "pattern
analysis" for NF treatment of ADD/ADHD, learning disabilities, tourettes
syndrome & seizure disorders.
WM2-4 Siegfried Othmer, Mechanisms of EEG BF: Ansatz to the G.U.T. (Grand Unified Theory)
of EEG Biofeedback
WMA 4-6 Susan Othmer: refinement of Protocols based on clinical data & brain function
models
WN2-6 Julian Isaacs & Patricia Fields Neurofeedback, Subtle Energy treatment and
Intuition; An introductory exploration
WP2-4 Thom Hartmann: ADD Success Strategies
WQ4-6 Carla Nelson HYPERACTIVE HEARTS & MINDS: Towards a Unified View of ADD?
WR2-4 Marilyn Ferguson
Sunday Feb 23
7:00 AM Dennis Campbell Measuring Peak Performance
7:30 Geoffrey Blundell Max Cade and Humanistic Neurofeedback
8:00 Peter Parks Neurofeedback in the integration of Humanistic, Psycho-
dynamic and Behavioral Principles.
8:20 Frank Echenhoffer EEG of con- sciousness, tantra & exceptional states
Break 8:50 video discussions of EEG/Consciousness with Dalai Lamaa
9:05 Anna Wise: Group vs. Indiv. EEG training for the high performance mind
9:55 Marilyn Ferguson
10:45 Break
11:05 Sue Wilson Athletic Performance
11:20 Jaelline Jaffe Making the Connection: Multiple Intelligences and
Learning Theory for Psychotherapists 12:10 Rob Kall : Moving Multiple Intel-
ligences into neurofeedback and peak performance, moving NF into MI & education
1:00 LUNCH EEG/Consciousness Special interest Group Meeting
2-6 workshops
Evening
7:00 Frank Deits feedback delay
7:15 Jim Hardt
7:50 Dan Chartier golf & NF, extended alpha training
8:20 Tom Collura: Applications of Small brainwave machines
8:35 Rae Tattenbaum: Time Travel; hypnosis & regression,alpha-theta
ratios
8:50 Break
9:05 Panel: Rob Kall: Positive Paradigms- an alternate vision for health care and
achieving optimal potential
Workshops
WS2-6 Lynda & Michael Thompson: cognitive strategies & NFB
WT2-6 Anna Wise The high Performance Mind. Sold out
WV2-6 Frank EchenhofferUsing EEG Biofeedback To Explore Consciousness
WX2-4 Karl Pribram: Thoughts on the Electrical Activity of The Brain
WY2-4 David Siever Sound Light technology
WZ4-6 Niels Birbaumer Slow Cortical Potential bioffeedback
WAA4-6 Jaelline Jaffe Making the Connection: Multiple Intelligences and
Learning Theory for Psychotherapists
Monday Feb 24
7:00 Len Ochs Treatment Planning in Neurotherapy.
7:50 Niels Birbaumer: BF of Slow Cortical Potentials in Epilepsy, schizophrenia
& Severe Motor Paralysis. (a totally different approach to NFback, with decades
of research and validation)
8:40 Break
9:00- BCIA EEG Cert. Exam
9:10 Tom Brownback: The BROWNBACK- MASON PROTOCOL UTILIZING NEUROTHERAPY WITH
DISSOCIATION/ADDICTION
9:40 Peter Rosenfeld: Recent research on Alpha Asymmetry & depression."
10:30 Michael Hutchison Peak Performance New Tools & Techniques
11:20 Break
11;40 Alfonso Bermea In-patient vs outpatient Alpha Theta NF
12:30 John Gruzelier & Jeniffer Wild self regulation of frontal and central
interhemispheric asymmetry: -Individual differences & schizophrenia
-Individual differences & im plications for psychopathology
1:00 Lunch (brainmaster meeting)
2:00 workshops start
EVENING
7:00 John Gilbert Income & NF
7:30 Valdeane Brown Integrating NF with solution oriented rapid therapy: working
quickly with borderline personality disorders.
8:20 Carol Manchester Treating High Risk Managed Care patients with NF &
Self-exploration
8:50 Break
9:00 Gary Schwartz:Panel -frontiers of Neurofeedback & EEG
Workshops
WBB2-6 Len Ochs Treatment Planning in Neurotherapy
WCC2-6 Tom Brownback Neurodiag
nosis & therapy with dissociatives
WDD2-4 Rob Kall Positive Emotional Intelligence Training, integrating heart &
technology. Positive experience training.
WEE4-6 S. Louise Norris Collecting The Income You Earn.: Insurance,
reimbursement, billing, practice mngmnt
WKK2-4 Dan Maust What to do when you hear "S/He just won't listen" -Efficient
Remedtn of Short-term MemoryProblems
WFF4-6 Alfonso Bermea Alpha theta NF with prisoners and substance/alcohol abusers-- in and
out-patient
Tuesday Feb 25 til 6:PM
7:00 William C. Scott Ending the War Within;remediating PTSD with alpha/theta
neurofeedback
7:20 Susan Othmer SMR/beta training for Autism and Asperger's Syndrome
7:50 S. Louise Norris Developing A Business Mind Set.
8:20 Tom Budzynski: Brain Brightening; Enhancing mental functioning in the elderly
9:10 Break
9:25 Tom Allen Dimensions of Arousal in NF-- Voluntary Control Mechanisms
10:15 Herta FlorBrain Plasticity & Pain; New Treatment Approaches
10:30 Julie Weiner fibromalgia
10:45
11:00 Break
11:15 Uwe Gerlach Photic stimulation as a key tool for healing and peak performance
protocols
11:30 David Noton PMS & light
11:45 David A. Kaiser Specificity of EEG Biofeedback for Cognitive Deficits
12::00 Joy W. Craddick Adverse Effects on Neurotherapy From
Ingestion of Excitotoxins And Other Dietary Substances
12:15
12:45 Ken Tachiki photostimu-
lation as a tool in NF
1:00 Lunch (advanced meeting lectures end)
Workshops
WGG2-6 Valdeane Brown The five phase model of NF.
WHH2-6 Tom Allen Neurobehavioral disorder continuum: ADD and beyond; approach to NF
WJJ2-6 Jay Gunkelman Intro to QEEG & Neurofeedback
WKK 2-4 Peter Parks:
WLL 4-6 Julie Weiner Fibromyalgia
Exhibitors
-FUTUREHEALTH
-Thought Tech
-EEG Spectrum
-Photosonix
-Tools for Exploration
-Universal Attention Disorders
-Biocomp Rsrch
-Focused Tech.
-Stoelting
-Biocom Techs
--------------------------------------------------------
3-Help Wanted: Experienced Neurofeedback Therapist-- Non-profit-- Community Counseling
Center, ACCESS Aransas County Counseling and Educational Support Services. Box 755,
Rockport TX 78382 512-729-0633 fax 512-729-9311 On the gulf, beautiful views,
fantastic weather, great challenge, great fishing. Call for details. Contact Frances
Mayo
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4-used equipment bought/sold, traded for up-grades or down-grades. We can help you move
your used equipment-- either sell it for you or take it as a trade in on new technology.
Used and Demos now available: I-330s, Biocomp, Davicon, A-620, J&J I-410, Physiotech 4
and eight channel EMG, breath trainers (RSA), CAPSCAN, Muscle Imaging software and
hardware.
------------------------------------------------------
5-New instrument review. Low Cost digital and audio thermal bofeedback::
The challenge of thermal biofeedback has always been the cost of a unit which combined a
digital readout with audio exceeded $300. Now, there's a new product which offers both a
digital readout and audio feedback for $69.95 plus $6 shipping.
This makes biofeedback available to any more people who otherwise could not have afforded
it. Of course, for the really low budget, there are liquid crystal thermometer cards, with
.5 degree Fahrehheit resolution, at a cost of $110/100, or $5 each. .
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6) EEG Biofeedback and Consciousness Interest Group Now Forming!
Coordinator: Frank Echenhofer, Ph.D. P.O. Box 192, Jenner, CA 95450
phone: (707) 865-1412; e-mail: fge@juno.com
The EEG Biofeedback and Consciousness Interest Group is forming to
discuss the creation of a comprehensive system to facilitate the development of
consciousness, with EEG biofeedback being one of the primary
consciousness exploratory methods.
Interested individuals can contact me directly. For individuals
attending the February EEG Biofeedback Meeting in Palm Springs, CA sponsored by
Futurehealth, I will be offering a morning talk and afternoon workshop on
Sunday, February 23 from 2 - 6 pm that will present these ideas in a
comprehensive and concrete form. Rob Kall has generously offered to
provide a meeting room and time during lunch on Sunday, February 23 for The EEG
Biofeedback and Consciousness Interest Group to have its first meeting.
It will be an opportunity for us to begin to meet one another, brainstorm, and
coordinate our efforts.
To provide an agenda for our discussions, I have borrowed heavily from
the structures inherent in the major spiritual traditions which have all
utilized a variety of approaches to facilitate the development of consciousness.
Meeting Agenda
Discussions Regarding:
1) Analytical knowledge, theory, and foundation concepts
a. philosophical foundation concepts
b. psychological foundation concepts
c. spiritual foundation concepts
d. scientific foundation concepts with an emphasis upon
neuroscience and EEG research
2)The methods (experimental and experiential) to explore consciousness
a. the variety of meditation and relaxation methods
b. psychotherapy methods
c. EEG biofeedback methods
d. Body oriented methods and expressive methods
e. scientific and observational methods for consciousness research
3) The role of direct and un-biased experiencing and intuitive knowing
4) The development of a community for support in common efforts
5) The development of a comprehensive system, that combines these
different approaches, into a unified system to facilitate the development of
consciousness.
Background
Since Joe Kamiya, in the 1960's, first wondered whether people could
discriminate the presence or absence of EEG alpha activity and whether
feedback could facilitate that conscious process, the power of EEG
biofeedback as a method to explore and to help facilitate the development
of consciousness has been recognized by many people.
In the nearly thirty years since that first use of EEG biofeedback, great
advances have been made in using EEG biofeedback in many very
important clinical application areas and many able scientists and
clinicians have helped the field grow rapidly. But for a variety of reasons, the
full potential of EEG biofeedback to explore and help facilitate the
development of consciousness in areas such as exceptional ability, peak
performance, and spiritual development have been slow to mature. What
may be necessary for EEG biofeedback to realize this potential is for it
to be housed within a carefully crafted comprehensive system to facilitate
the development of consciousness.
There have been a number of historical precedents of such comprehensive
systems to facilitate the development of consciousness. All of the great
spiritual traditions have as their primary aim the facilitation of the
development of consciousness and all are comprehensive systems. They
emerged from within unique and different cultural contexts. In order to
provide a relevant system to facilitate the development of consciousness,
each system drew heavily upon its culture's time and place, its
particular local, its essential philosophy, implicit psychology, technology and
sciences, medicine, and artistic forms.
If history can provide some guidance, it might be possible to assume that
if a Western comprehensive system to facilitate the further development of
consciousness were to begin to emerge today it also would necessarily
reflect our era's different philosophical systems, our various psychological
approaches, our technology and sciences, and definitely our emphasis upon
the scientific method, our conventional and alternative medical
approaches, our expressions of popular culture, and our varieties of
artistic forms.
It may be possible that some of the necessary elements needed to build a
Western comprehensive system to facilitate the development of consciousness currently
exist as they have not existed before.
Humanistic and Transpersonal psychology have recently emerged and have begun to
provide a non-sectarian psychological and philosophical context for a comprehensive system
to facilitate the development of consciousness (see Battista, Tart, and Wilber articles in
bibliography). Guidelines regarding
methods to explore consciousness have been emerging (see Echenhofer,
Pope, and Stoyva articles in bibliography) and EEG biofeedback technology has become very
sophisticated along with qEEG and
topographic mapping technology. With many more Westerners practicing in the
traditional spiritual systems, and many of them psychologists, there has been a great
increase in our collective knowledge regarding the functional significance of many of the
methods used within the spiritual systems which could provide guidance regarding the
specific directions
for developing consciousness.
Finally, what may be most important, are individuals who are interested in such an
enterprise. To build a Western comprehensive system to facilitate the
development of consciousness it will probably be necessary to develop
consensual realities for discourse regarding the states of consciousness in question
(see Tart article in bibliography). The EEG Biofeedback Consciousness Interest
Group is forming to see, if indeed, the required elements for this
endeavor to unfold currently exist.
I include an initial bibliography whcih will soon be greatly expanded.
EEG Biofeedback and Consciousness Interest Group Bibliography
Battista, J.R. (1978). The Science of Consciousness. In K.S. Pope and J.
L.
Singer (Eds.) The Stream of Consciousness: Scientific Investigations into
the
Flow of Human Experience. New York: Plenum Press. pp. 55-87.
Davidson, J.M. (1980). The Psychobiology of Sexual Experience. In
J.M. Davidson and R.J. Davidson (Eds.) The Psychobiology of
Consciousness. New York: Plenum Press. pp. 271-332.
Echenhofer, F.G., and Coombs, M.M. (1987). A brief review of the
research literature and controversies in EEG biofeedback and EEG meditation
research Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 19, pp. 161-171.
Echenhofer, F.G. (1992). EEG biofeedback assisted Meditation.
Proceedings of the the Pennsylvania Society of Behavioral Medicine and Biofeedback, King
of Prussia, PA. Pennsylvania Society of Behavioral Medicine and
Biofeedback Editor - Ilsa Loetzbeier, (610) 776-1034. no copyright
Fischer, R. (1978). Cartography of conscious states: Integration of East
and West. In A.A. Sugerman and R. E. Tarter (Eds.) Expanding dimensions of
consciousness, New York: Springer Publishing Company. pp. 24-57.
Fox, N.A. and Davidson, R.J. (1984). Hemispheric Substrates of Affect: A
Developmental Model. In N.A. Fox and R.J. Davidson (Eds.) The
Psychobiology of Affective Development, Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. pp. 353-381.
Pope, K. S. (1978). How Gender, Solitude, and Posture Influence the
Stream of Consciousness. In K.S. Pope and J. L. Singer (Eds.) The Stream of
Consciousness: Scientific Investigations into the Flow of Human
Experience New York: Plenum Press. pp. 259-299.
Rosenfeld, J.P. (1995). Operant (Biofeedback) Control of Left-Right
Frontal Alpha Power Differences: Potential Neurotherapy for Affective Disorders.
Biofeedback and Self-Regulation, 20(3), 241-258.
Sterman, B. (1996). Physiological Origins and Functional Correlates of
EEG Rhythmic Activities: Implications for Self-Regulation. Biofeedback and
Self-Regulation, 21(1), 3-33.
Stoyva, J. (1971). The Public (Scientific) Study of Private Events. In T.
Barber, L. DiCara, J. Kamiya, N. Miller, D. Shapiro, and J. Stoyva Biofeedback
and Self-Control. Chicago: Aldine - Atherton. pp. 29-42.
Tart, C. (1974). States of consciousness and state-specific sciences. In
R.E. Ornstein (Ed.) The Nature of Human Consciousness. New York: Viking Press.
pp. 41-60. (reprinted from Science, 176 June 16, 1972, 1203-1210.
Copyright 1972 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science).
Wilber, K. (1973). Eye yo eye. Revision: a Journal of Knowledge and
Consciousness. 2 (1), pp. 3-25. Copyright 1979 Revision, Inc. P.O. Box
316, Cambridge, MA 02138, Printed by Heffernan Press, Worcester, MA.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
7) all information on quotation central is complete in table of contents.
----------------------------------
8) Check out Positivity Central. The goal of this website is to build momentum for a
field, cybercommunity and dialgoue which explores aspects of positive experience,
feelings, states, actions, beliefs, visions, communities, etcetera. The site includes some
of Rob Kall's personal works, plus a growing list of links to sites which explore
happiness, laughter, smiling, and eventually, other dimensions of positivity. Please
let us know about any websites which might fit, including your own.
Positivity Central,
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SMILEposctrl.html
where you can find:
--the KPEI Positive Experience inventory, created to help people think about and remember
past positive experiences, to begin noticing current ones and planning for future ones
-- Rob Kall's POsitivity Training Page, with a chart of Positivity/Negativity traits
- A link to a Japanese 1996 conference on cross cultural conceptions of happiness
-quotations on laughter, freedom, positive
_______________________________________________________
9) USE OF MEDICATION FOR ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER DOUBLES
CHICAGO--Between 1990 and 1995 there was a 2.5-fold increase in the use of
methylphenidate (Ritalin) to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) in the U.S., according to a recent study in Pediatrics, the journal of
the American Academy of Pediatrics. The study also notes that media reports of
a sixfold increase in the medication were exaggerated. "The Drug Enforcement
Administration production quotas for methylphenidate that show a sixfold trend
are misleading because these quotas are not based on actual patient usage,"
according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in
Baltimore, Baltimore County Health Department and the University of Maryland
at Baltimore. They examined regional and national databases to determine the
prevalence of methylphenidate treatment. Approximately 1.5 million of 5- to
18-year-olds were receiving methylphenidate treatment for ADHD in mid-1995.
The researchers report that this increase is due to three factors: an increase
in duration of treatment; more girls, adolescents and inattentive youths being
treated with methylphenidate; and, an improvement in the public image of the
medication. ADHD youths usually begin methylphenidate treatment during the
elementary school years but the length of use is now lasting into their
secondary school years.
This study was published in the peer-reviewed, scientific journal of the American Academy
of Pediatrics, but does not necessarily reflect the policies or opinions of the
Academy. The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 51,000 pediatricians
dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and
young adults.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10- GSR, Smiling and trauma
69-180. Casanova, Gisele M.; Domanic, Jodi; McCanne, Thomas R.; & Milner, Joel S.
(1994). Physiological responses to child stimuli in mothers with and without a history of
physical abuse. Child Abuse & Neglect, 18, 995-1004.
The study looked at changes in heart rate, skin conductance, and self-
reported affect in response to child stimuli in mothers with and without a childhood
history of physical abuse. Although the two groups of mothers did not differ in self-
reported affect or in hear rates in response to the crying and smiling infant, mothers
with a childhood history of abuse showed increases in skin conductance while viewing the
smiling infant, but not while viewing the crying infant. In contrast, mothers without a
childhood history of abuse showed increases in skin conductance during the presentation of
the crying infant, but not while viewing the smiling infant. Similarities between the skin
conductance results for mother with and without a childhood history of abuse and skin
conductance data reported for physically abusive and at-risk mothers are discussed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11- LIGHT THERAPY CHANGES BRAIN CHEMISTRY
EVANSTON. Ill. --- Exposure to bright light could be used as a kind of
"drug" to alter the chemical activity in the brain, according to prliminary
research findings published in the Thursday, Jan. 9 issue of the scientific
journal Nature.
Light therapy is currently used to treat a kind of depression known as
seasonal affective disorder (SAD), believed to be caused by the shortness
of the day in winter. The theory was that extending the daylight hours
would overcome the effects of the season. But, surprisingly, light therapy
has proven to be effective even when given during the daylight hours.
Now Fred W. Turek and colleagues at the Center for Circadian Biology and
Medicine at Northwestern University have found a possible explanation. In a
letter in the Thursday, Jan. 9 issue of Nature, they describe experimens
with hamsters in which the effects of serotonin are blocked by exposure to
a two-hour pulse of light.
Research has shown that serotonin plays a role in regulating circadian
rhythms and also regulating moods. When given to hamsters at a certain time
of day, it normally advances the biological clock. But when combined with
the exposure to light, the advances are severely attenuated or completely
blocked. This suggests that light plays a role in modulating the activity
of neurons in the brain that respond to serotonin.
These changes "could have important implications for the use of light as a
'drug' to alter neurochemical activity in the brain," the researchers
conlude.
Co-authors of the Nature letter were Phyllis C. Zee, M.D., associate
professor of neurology at northwestern University Medical School, and
Plamen D. Penev, research associate in the department of neurobiology and
physiology at Northwestern University.
-30-
(Dr. Turek can be reached at 847-491-2865 or by e-mail at fturek@nwu.edu
(Dr. Zee can be reached at 312-908-7950 or e-mail at p-zee@nwu.edu
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12) To Futurehealth 1997 5th Annual '97 Winter Conference on Brain
Function/EEG, Modification & Training: Advanced Meeting Colloquium Feb 21-25, Palm
Springs CA registrants, who are already BCIA-EEG certified, and who have not yet
taken the BCIA EEG exam:
Please help us on the BCIA EEG Exam Committee. Even though it won't count
since you are already certified, please, when you are in Palm Springs, take
the EEG exam!! It will help us profoundly in validating the exam by giving
us a validation sample. We need to see what people already certified have as
their knowledge base. We know many of our present questions may be off the
wall, and you can help give us an idea which they are. You don't need to
study, just sit for an hour and answer those questions on the test that you
feel you can answer. Write all the comments you like. Help!!! Please let me know.
J.P. Rosenfeld,Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL, USA 60208
phone:847-491-3629
fax: 847-491-7859
email: jp-rosenfeld@nwu.edu
|
