Mapping Madness: What qEEG Analysis Reveals About the Schizophrenic Brain

Schizophrenia is a well-known disorder, and it affects around 1% of the population nationwide; however, it is not yet fully understood from a scientific perspective. First documented in the 19^th century as dementia praecox, it was later renamed schizophrenia, from the Greek words for “split mind.” Historically, schizophrenia has often had a poor prognosis, but findings in the neuroscience of schizophrenia have illuminated potential new treatments that could be more effective than the antipsychotics and atypical antipsychotics that have traditionally been used to manage the disorder. qEEG studies have revealed that brainwave dysregulation is a major factor in schizophrenia, leading to the intriguing possibility that neurofeedback therapy could be used to treat this debilitating condition. Luckily for residents in the New York area there are several BrainCore clinics that specialize in neurofeedback for schizophrenia. 

The Problems with Pharmaceutical Schizophrenia Treatment 

Schizophrenia is usually treated with prescription medications. Currently, a class of drugs called atypical antipsychotics is used most often; examples are Seroquel and Risperdal. These are considered to have a lesser side effect profile than earlier antipsychotics, such as Thorazine and Halperidol, which could cause extrapyramidal side effects similar to the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Drugs for schizophrenia work by blocking dopamine receptors in the brain. Although drugs that work on these receptors were known to be effective before evidence was produced to support the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia, more recent research has verified that excess dopamine availability is a factor in schizophrenia.

Antipsychotics and atypical antipsychotics are usually effective for some symptoms and types of schizophrenia, but not always. In schizophrenia, there are two classes of symptoms:

·         positive symptoms

·         negative symptoms

Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and other traits that are absent in normal individuals but present in those with schizophrenia. Negative symptoms include poverty of speech, apathy, lack of motivation, anhedonia (the inability to experience pleasure), and other normal features that are absent in schizophrenic individuals. Antipsychotics tend to be successful for treating positive symptoms; however, the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, the onset of which is often insidious, often prove more intractable despite medication. Neurofeedback therapy guided by qEEG mind mapping could be a promising modality for managing negative symptoms of schizophrenia and related disorders.

  

qEEG Mind Mapping of Schizophrenia 

Research into the neurophysiology of schizophrenia using qEEG (quantitative encephalography), an imaging technique that uses software to perform calculations to compare EEG readings of an individual to databases in order to look for abnormalities, has produced new findings about brainwave dysregulation in schizophrenia. Mind mapping of schizophrenia brains has revealed poor self-regulation of brainwave frequencies, as well as hemisphere asymmetry, a type of brainwave dysregulation found in different forms in many brain-based disorders in New York. Specifically, researchers have found that schizophrenic individuals show decreased alpha activity, but increased beta, theta, and delta activity. Research has also elucidated differences in brainwave regulation that distinguish schizophrenia from depression, making qEEG mind mapping a potentially useful biomarker and diagnostic tool for determining that a person has schizophrenia rather than another psychotic condition, such as depression with psychotic features.

Although researchers have yet to carry out enough large-scale, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials to confidently declare the efficacy of qEEG-guided neurofeedback therapy for schizophrenia, case studies that have been published thus far have produced very promising results. Furthermore, analysis of qEEG mind mapping data of schizophrenic patients on their antipsychotic medications reveals that medications result in the normalization of the neural dysregulation. This could mean that using qEEG mind mapping to plan neurofeedback therapy for schizophrenia could present an effective alternative to antipsychotics, minus the many negative side effects of the drugs. For more information or to schedule a consultation with your local BrainCore clinic visit our website or call: 516-587-7810