Combined Psycho-physical Neurofeedback Therapy in the Stimulant Addiction Treatment: Clinical-psychological and EEG/FMRI Study

Walery Zukow

Stimulant usage progressively replaces opiate and cannabis addiction and become substance dependence problem of today. Treatment of stimulant users is traditionally the same as for the opiate addiction. Asthenia, dysphoria and negativism are common causes for psychological dependence. Tranquilizers, antipsychotics, sedatives can quickly help to cope with the negative behavioral disorders that accompany drug usage, but reduced psycho-physical and bio-social activity are common side effects of their use. Thus development of the new replacement therapy methods for stimulant addiction is urgent task for today’s medicine. We propose neurofeedback audiovisual stimulation (AVS) in combination with hypnotic suggestion as a new approach for stimulant addiction treatment. The group of patients was treated with AVS therapy in combination with hypnotic suggestion, which was used as the replacement therapy at the abstinence period. Psychological testing, EEG and fMRI were used for the evaluation of the AVS effects. Psychological tests showed that AVS combined with hypno-suggestive therapy helped to reduce negative psychotic symptoms of the drug withdrawal syndrome. EEG effect of the AVS appeared in predominant delta rhythm displacement by the alpha rhythm after the treatment. fMRI exams showed considerable increase of the volumes of activation after the AVS and almost complete extinction of the deactivation, which is normally present at the time of task execution. The last could be also considered as a marker for prolonged effect of brain stimulation by the AVS therapy. Thus AVS combined with hypno-suggestive therapy is a promising method for the rehabilitation of patients, which are addicted to stimulants.