NeurOptimal neurofeedback helps relieve chemo brain symptoms

Chemotherapy can save a cancer patient's life. But those who have struggled with ‘chemo brain’ can testify to the frustration of not being able to complete the simplest tasks.  Social psychologist Jean Alvarez, a breast cancer survivor, struggled with the condition for years. In 2007, she turned to neurofeedback when nothing else seemed to help her get rid of the two symptoms she said were "left over" from chemotherapy treatment that ended years earlier.

Alvarez wanted to regain her ability to multitask cognitively, instead of being able to focus only on one thing at a time. She also wanted to stop getting stuck trying to find words midsentence. The ability to have a fluid conversation had escaped her.  Electroencephalogram, or EEG, biofeedback, otherwise known as neurofeedback, is a noninvasive treatment that provides information on and measures changes in a person's brain-wave activity. The brain "self-corrects" by using the feedback to reorganize.

Traditional neurofeedback pinpoints a specific area of the brain in need of correction. But no one knows what the electrical "signature" of chemo brain is, so Alvarez used another type of neurofeedback equipment, NeurOptimal, that addresses the brain as an integrated system, making the specific location of the problem less important.

Resistant to the suggestion of her physician at the time to undergo neuropsychological testing, Alvarez instead decided to pursue neurofeedback after revisiting something she had previously read about the technique.  Not only did Alvarez find relief, but after 10 treatments, she felt as good as she had before she began chemotherapy. That led her to design a research study to see if her success could be replicated. She hoped to provide relief to others more quickly than if they waited for symptoms to dissipate on their own, months or years later.

The small study looked at the impact of neurofeedback on lessening post-cancer cognitive impairment, or PCCI.  Her study was published online April 12 in the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies.  The type of neurofeedback employed in the study was a brief interruption in music that the study subject was listening to.  This newer approach to neurofeedback, Alvarez wrote, trains the whole brain by having participants "let go" instead of engaging actively or consciously with the instrument providing that feedback.

Alvarez, director of research at the newly incorporated Cleveland-based Applied Brain Research Foundation of Ohio, began enrolling breast cancer patients for the study in early 2010.  Twenty-three women, who ranged in age from 43 to 70 and who had completed treatment for breast cancer received NeurOptimal neurofeedback twice a week for 10 weeks for 33 minutes a session. What Alvarez found was that the treatment did help relieve symptoms of PCCI, or chemo brain, and it did help other patients return to the level of function they had prior to starting chemotherapy.

Chemo brain symptoms were reversed in 21 of the 23 women.  "I was hoping to see all of those good results, but I'm not sure I was expecting to see them," Alvarez said.  "Almost everyone improved and returned to normal levels. That was surprising and gratifying."  Not all of the study participants showed benefits right away, or at the same rate, she said. Some started noticing a change after a half-dozen sessions, while a few didn't begin seeing improvement until toward the end of their participation, Alvarez said.  For some women, sleep quality improved first; in others, symptoms of depression lessened, she said, adding, "It's a pretty individual process."

"Chemo brain is real," said Dr. Fremonta Meyer, a psychiatrist at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and co-author of Alvarez's study who helped interpret the data. Among the patients she sees are those with post-cancer cognitive problems that may sound like the effects of normal aging or menopause. But difficulty finding words, short-term memory loss, problems sleeping and the inability to multitask effectively are all things that can be the result of chemo brain, she said.

http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2013/04/neurofeedback_helps_relieve_ch.html