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Dr. Thomas Brod
Psychiatrist. Psychoanalyst.
Los Angeles, CA

A practicing psychoanalyst for twenty years, Dr. Brod stays with the patient throughout the Neurofeedback session. He helps the patient de-align with the immediate experience of the Neurofeedback and whatever else the training brings up. For sophisticated patients, he utilizes a tiered Neurofeedback training that moves patients from trained non-directed alertness to deep affective imagery, moving the brain wave training to SMR to alpha to theta.

He is considered a mainstream psychiatrist, with a practice that deals with a whole host of problems, including adult ADD, depression, bipolar disorders, and patients interested in cognitive enhancement. It also includes psychophysiologic disorders such as migraines, hypertension, irritable bowel, and heart arrhythmia. He has been using Neurofeedback for several years. He estimates spending from a third to a half of his day involved with Neurofeedback.

From an interview with Mike Cohen,
Southern Institute of Psycho-Physiology, August 1996.

What is the impact on patients?
This is one of the broad reach of tools available, and it's a good tool. Like any tool, it doesn't work for everyone, but it does benefit most people. It accelerates symptom removal and the development of healthy self-regulation ' meaning it helps the patient's own body make the proper adjustments. Dr. Brod often uses it in conjunction with medications.

In helping with cognitive enhancement, it complements the use of nutrients and smart drugs, and nootropic medication for attention, memory and other cognitive type problems.' 'Patients get good results, though the results are often not connected by the patient to the biofeedback process; and since the process is effective in part by non-conscious non-intuitive means, some people find it: 1) is difficult to keep going through the early sessions, (say 5-10) when the going becomes routine and the results are still subtle at best, or 2) it is hard to attribute their improvement to the Neurofeedback itself.

Do you feel this is a tool more psychiatrists should explore using, and if so, why?
Yes, because it is effective at treating symptoms, and it sensitizes patients to mental states that they are otherwise oblivious to. It can facilitate deep integration of the unconscious with alpha-theta training.

Do insurance companies pay for patients treatment with Neurofeedback?
He bills for his time spent in medical psychotherapy, code number CPT90844.

As a psychoanalyst, he stays with the patients as they move through a Neurofeedback session, dealing with their immediate experience as the result of the Neurofeedback. He has developed a tiered training approach in Neurofeedback that moves patients from alertness finally to guided imagery, the last stage, which works well with alpha-theta and theta (brainwave) training