This paper helps to underscore the value of Quantitative EEG (QEEG) assessment in the differentiation of memory loss conditions, specifically Alzheimer's, Frontotemporal and Vascular dementia which are the most prevalent forms in our population. It is critically important to be able to corretly identify the nature of someone's symptoms so that specific measures can be employed to rhelp them recover. Our work with neurofeedback and photobiomodulation has been able to markedly improve patients' cogntiive and behavioral functioning specifically becuase we used the QEEG customize treatment to their particular neurophysiological and functional deficits. It also helps to clarify that the QEEG and neurofeedback training are therapeutic in terms of improving neural connectivity but are not tissue-level interventions like photobiomodulation. The combined use of these tools is what we see as the most effective intervention strategy currently available especially when combined with functional and integrative biomedical protocols, e.g., RECODE and Bredesen treatment programs.  

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33166175/

I've often been asked about the use of medication in treating emotional and behavioral disorders and my standard response is that one should use medication to make it possibl to work in psychotherapy. The idea that drugs are going to resolve emotional challenges without any need to explore these problems consciously and modify ones thinking and other behavior is hard to fathom at best. I've become involved with the use of nondrug noninvasive methods of treatment for the simple reason that they work and have little to no side effects and are cost effective by orders of magnitude especically when considering them being used by the general population. This doesn't mean that I don't include psychotherapeutic work both cognitive and affective in the course of my working with people. I think it is important to educate teh public  as to the corporate drug industry marketing mythology regarding the idea that psychiatric disorders are brain illnesses and can be 'cured' or 'treated' with specialized medications. The Harvard Psychiatry review paper linked here outlines the realities of this myth making effort over the last 30+ years. I'm pleased to see this finally being articulated in an esteemed journal and hope that it has broad impact on the clinicians and those seeking relief from emotional pain that can manifest as physical symptoms. I also hope we can begin to discriminate symptoms born of real biophysical disorders, e.g., traumatic brain injury, heavy metal or mold toxicity, Lyme disease and/or other tick-born illnesses that can cause neuropsychiatric symptoms of almost any that are outlined in the DSMV.  We need to get smarter about all this especially now with all the consequences that will result from millions of people having had COVID 19 infection. It is delusional to think there won't be longer term consequences for our society especially as the evidence becomes available regarding the downstream neurological consequences from COVID 19. 

https://journals.lww.com/hrpjournal/fulltext/2020/11000/messaging_in_biological_psychiatry_.4.aspx

For those of us who have been engaged in the field of EEG biofeedback and neurotherapies in general, this announcement has a double edged impact. I am both thrilled and irritated at such an announcement as it offers us some important ways to think and develop strategies for enhancing treatment models and irritated that there wasn't a single reference to QEEG or neurofeedback in the paper or references. Obviously, much more work is needed to engage the neuroscience and biomedical engineering community and the evidence is there to construct more sensitive measurement and feedback systems that can then provide us with machine learning technology that will facilitate continuous iprocess mprovement. QMF is investing in BMI systems that can discriminate and quantize human intention to control digital outputs so the algorithms being established here can be leveraged in developing future generations of neural prosthetics.

https://viterbischool.usc.edu/news/2018/09/researchers-decode-mood-from-human-brain-signals/

Methylphenidate for ADHD rejected from the WHO Essential Medicines List due to uncertainties in benefit-harm profile

1. Ole Jakob Storebø1,2, 
2. Christian Gluud3

I felt a familiar sense of relief when I saw this repudiation of Ritalin and other medications as an effective treatment for attention related disorders. My training as a psychotherapist included the fundamental premise that medication was something to be used as a way to help to work effectiveliy in therapy. This perspective has been eclipsed by the promotion of medication as curative or the only thing that was needed for the remediation of neuropsychiatric disorders. I've spent the last 15 years working with children and adults having been given this diagnosic label and regularly finding that the side effects of these medications were signfiicantly more challenging than was indicated they should expect from their prescribers. I am aware that I'm writing this post the American presidential electtion has been decided in favor oif the candidate who promoted harm reduction with regard to COVID 19 and the climate crisis. The awful truth is that there are alternatives to amphetamines and related medications that have been assiduously avoided being given the funding and clinical attention they deserved. I hope the new administration will seize on this decision by the WHO and fund research to evolve a treatment service delivery system that will enhance cognition and behavior by promoting non-drug, noninvasive neurophysiologically-based methods of self-regulation, e.g., neurofeedback training. 

i think we are witnessing a powerful shift in perspective and hope the new administration in Washington can't act definitively to authorize the Department of Education to focus on recruiting competent, trauma-informed integrative health- oriented professionals to take up the challenge of improving public education. The FDA needs to rebuild its credibility and focus on supporting evidence-based treatment models predicated on doing the less invasive before more invasive interventions. Therapeutic methods that can be delivered remotely are now essential and we have shown that neurofeedback and other neurotherapeutic methods are precisely what's needed to promote improved levels emotional and behavioral regulation and academic perofrmance without risking exposure to COVID 19. 

Quietmind is promoting the use of near infrared light stimulation as a useful part of a broader CV!9 prevention strategy as well as to reduce the severity and likelihood of post-infection neurological symptoms. 

ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2020/04/24/bmjebm-2019-111328

This study supports our view that diagnosis of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions require ruling out any presence of tick borne diseases including Lyme and all co-infections, heavy metal and mold toxicity. Anyone who works outdoors or participates in field related sport activity who then develops PTSD should be checked for the presence of these neuroinfalmmatory agents. Traumatic events may trigger the expression of symptoms in those who are sufficiently compromised to impair full recovery. QMF has long employed and advocated for the use of Quantitative EEG and heart rate variability (HRV) indices as neuromarkers that allow empirically validated injury assessment, thus leading to highly individualized treatment planning and efficacy assessment.  
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The prevalence of Lyme disease and associated co-infections in people with a chronic post-concussive syndrome
Azzolino S, Zaman R, Hankir A, Carrick FR.
Psychiatria Danubina. 2019 Sep;31(Suppl 3):299-307.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31488744

Abstract
Introduction
There is increasing awareness that Lyme borreliosis (LB) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) may cause mental health symptoms. TBI and Lyme disease compromise the health and activities of millions of patients per year. The chronic symptoms and disability of TBI and Lyme disease share a similar clinical presentation. We have identified an alarming number of individuals suffering from post-concussion syndrome (PCS) that are refractory to care and that have serologically tested positive for Lyme disease.

Subjects and Methods
A single-center retrospective review of patient charts that were symptomatic a minimum of one year after a TBI that were tested for Lyme disease to ascertain if there was a relationship.

Results
217 PCS patient records (93 females with a mean age of 34 years, 120 males with a mean age of 40 years and 4 individuals with unknown gender) were included in the review. 38% had a positive Western Blot Igenex IgM. There was a statistically significant relationship of a positive Western Blot Igenex IGM predicting chronic PCS Pearson χ2(1)=6.8866, P=0.009, Fisher's exact score p=0.015 and φ=0.2813 representing a moderate effect size.

Conclusions
Long term PCS over one year's duration is associated with undiagnosed Lyme disease. There was statistical and substantive significance between individuals with chronic PCS having a positive Western Blot Igenex IgM. Males were more likely to have a positive Western Blot Igenex IgM than females.

Free, full text (pdf file):
http://www.psychiatria-danubina.com/UserDocsImages/pdf/dnb_vol31_sup3/dnb_vol31_sup3_299.pdf