Advancing the field of biofeedback

[Guest guest]

In 1977, when I was a graduate student in social work, I injured my back. The pain got worse and worse and reached the point that I had to drop out of school. Doctors put me on drugs that didn’t help, including one that I later found out was known to cause leukemia. Chiropractic and osteopathic manipulation did little for me. For the next three years I was in agony and barely functioned. I thought about suicide. Then, by chance, a friend suggested I read Anatomy of An Illness by Norman Cousins, who cured himself of a painful, chronic, degenerative joint disease with a self-designed program of laughter therapy. Cousins mentioned biofeedback in the book. I found a local psychologist who did biofeedback. My insurance refused to pay for biofeedback treatment. I used my meager resources to pay for a few sessions of temperature biofeedback and, armed with a $5 Biotic Band to monitor my hand temperature, I healed my back pain and turned my life around.Last week, I saw a 7 year old boy for the first time. He had been started on Concerta 6 months before for hyperactivity and explosive behavior. After starting Concerta, he began talking about stabbing members of his family then killing himself and about jumping out a window. Suicidal ideation and behavior are known side effects of stimulants. The response of the psychiatrist was to keep him on Concerta and put him on Zoloft. Zoloft made him more angry and agitated. The response of the psychiatrist was to keep him on Zoloft and add more stimulants. The mother had had enough but she didn’t know where to turn. Then the mother began talking to another mother at the learning center where she takes her son for tutoring. The other mother brings her daughter to me for neurofeedback for ADHD. Her daughter had gone from being threatened with being left back in school to being the most successful student academically in her class. She told the boy’s mother about neurofeedback and gave her my name. She also recommended reading Getting Rid of Ritalin. The family’s insurance refuses to pay for neurofeedback treatment but the mother brought her son for treatment anyway.It is 32 years since my “accidental” discovery of biofeedback. The field has grown tremendously in terms of its ability to help people with chronic pain, ADHD, TBI, autism, seizure disorders, anxiety, depression and many other serious disorders. Still, few people know about biofeedback and insurance rarely covers it. Millions of people are suffering needlessly whom we could help, but they either don’t know about biofeedback or can’t access it due to cost and lack of insurance coverage. As a field, we have done a poor job of telling people about what we do and advocating for payment. Some in the field are expending their precious energy trying to discredit others who are doing good, important work because they don’t approve of their methods or don’t have the “right” credentials instead of focusing on our real enemies: the powerful forces that make huge profits peddling truly dangerous treatments, who use any means necessary to squash the competition.This is why, as president of the Northeast Regional Biofeedback Society, I initiated a conference that will take place April 20-22, 2012 near the Newark International Airport in , NJ. The conference, called “Realizing the Potential of Biofeedback: An International Call To Action”, will educate participants about marketing, advocacy, lobbying, PR, fundraising, getting biofeedback into schools and treatment centers and many other essential skills for advancing the field. In my keynote address on Friday evening, I will discuss the history of organized medicine and how it has suppressed safe, effective alternative treatments, including biofeedback, so participants will understand the real barriers to advancing our field.Please go to www.nrbs.org to find out more about the conference and to register. We need you!Sincerely, Perlin, LCSW, BCBPresident, Northeast Regional Biofeedback Society