Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a serious type of anxiety caused by an extremely stressful event or series of events. When an individual experienced trauma, their brain is immediately conditioned to prepare it for the next event. There is an persistent overarousal in the sympathetic nervous system (fight, flight or freeze) paired with an inability to relax, self sooth, and rest. Often this hypervigilant state presents as excessive fast waves in the EEG brain map. It is often coupled with trauma markers such as excessive slow waves seen in delta and theta which reflect the unprocessed (often subconscious) trauma. The PTSD profile is seen as a hypervigilant response to the slower waves.
PTSD responds well to neurotherapy. By addressing the physiology of PTSD, we can access the physics behind the conditioned response. After beginning neurofeedback or stimulation, it is common for individuals to experience a reduction in the disturbing symptoms of PTSD allowing a calmer reaction response in normal life.
ptsd
Case Studies
The long-term costs of traumatic stress: intertwined physical and psychological consequences [pdf]
by Alexander C. McFarlane
ABSTRACT: The gradual emergence of symptoms following exposure to traumatic events has presented a major conceptual challenge to psychiatry. The mechanism that causes the progressive escalation of symptoms with the passage of time leading to delayed onset post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involves the process of sensitization and kindling. The development of traumatic memories at the time of stress exposure represents a major vulnerability through repeated environmental triggering of the increasing dysregulation of an individual’s neurobiology. An increasing body of evidence demonstrates how the increased allostatic load associated with PTSD is associated with a significant body of physical morbidity in the form of chronic musculoskeletal pain, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, obesity and cardiovascular disease. This increasing body of literature suggests that the effects of traumatic stress need to be considered as a major environmental challenge that places individual’s physical and psychological health equally at risk. This broader perspective has important implications for developing treatments that address the underlying dysregulation of cortical arousal and neurohormonal abnormalities following exposure to traumatic stress.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder—The Neurofeedback Remedy [pdf]
by Siegfried Othmer, PhD, and Susan F. Othmer, BA
Biofeedback, Volume 37, Issue 1, pp. 24–31
The application of neurofeedback to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in returning veterans is described herein and is illustrated with two case histories. Initially, frequency-based electroencephalogram training was employed to promote functional recovery, in the manner of the traditional sensorimotor rhythm/beta approach. An optimization procedure was employed in which the reinforcement frequency is tailored to the client on the basis of symptom response, with particular regard for the regulation of arousal. Low frequencies, down to .01 Hz, have been found especially useful in the remediation of post traumatic stress disorder. This training was complemented with traditional alpha-theta work as pioneered at theMenninger Foundation and by Peniston. The objective here is experiential, because prior traumas typically are revisited in a nonforced, nontraumatic manner. The benign witnessing of traumas consolidates the experience of safety for which the prior training laid the groundwork. Collectively, this approach has been found to be much better tolerated than traditional exposure therapies. In addition, it is helpful in the shedding of substance dependencies that are common in treatment-resistant PTSD.