Case A

This case involved a previously brilliant and accomplished eighty-five year old male who was diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s Disease when he was eighty-two. The man appeared to be in the earlier part of Stage Five of his disease progression, with significant gaps in short-term memory, and general deficits in cognitive function. Some assistance with his daily living activities was required, and he could no longer recall important information such as his current address, telephone number, the date, day of the week or season, and struggled to complete mental arithmetic problems and other abstract or concrete spatial tasks. He demonstrated confusion with some mild combativeness and was suffering some depression; did not want to get out of bed. The man's physiological health was adequate and on par with eighty percent of his peers. With assistance, he was compliant with prescribed antidepressants and cognitive enhancement medications for about a year, with no noticeable improvements.

The man completed Neurofeedback training for the first time and reported no unpleasant after effects during his initial session. Thereafter he consistently reported feeling "very relaxed". The family reported mood improvements, noting the man's increased motivation and socialization, and the fact that he was longer staying in bed all of the time. As his training continued the adult children reported incremental improvements with the man’s medium-term memory, and partial recovery of some of his personality traits, including increased animation and facial expression. Midway through training the man's family reported apparent stabilization of the disease's progression, noting their father's combativeness was "all but gone", with a congenial demeanor prevailing. The family reported the man was consistently cooperative and able to live independently in an assisted living apartment. After several years the family relocated the man to a specialized facility, where the staff remarked on his impressive cognitive acuity during word games as well as his wit and humor. He became a favorite among the residents and staff due to his pleasant disposition. The family enrolled the man into an off-site Alzheimer's Day Program to provide additional stimulus. After an initial interview with the man the clinical staff in that facility concluded he was significantly higher functioning then most of the program's participants. Treatments are ongoing.

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Case B - Vascular Dementia with Depression

This case involved a sixty-seven year old woman whose dementia became apparent when she began to have difficulty remembering how to get to a previously known destination. Over time she had more and more difficulty with word retrieval; knew what she wanted to say but could not get the words to "come out”. She sought treatment and was told she had suffered mild transient ischemic attacks with increased vascular degeneration due to a history of poorly controlled high blood pressure and heart arrhythmias. The woman was compliant with prescribed medications to improve blood circulation to the brain and reduce the probability of future strokes, and she had also sought occupational and speech therapies to help resolve her aphasia and stimulate normal movement and speech patterns. But she was not able to drive and had other complaints: growing anxiety about her dependency, including occasional localized tingling and numbness in her hands, general forgetfulness, bouts of dizziness, and persistent depression. She was taking a prescribed antidepressant but after a year was still not experiencing significant mood improvement.

After several sessions of Neurofeedback training the woman reported that she could feel herself “relaxing better”. Thereafter we measured her blood pressure before and after treatment with noted reductions. As training progressed the woman guardedly reported mood improvements, but wasn’t sure since it was “just little things” that were happening; specifically, she was taking a renewed interest in taking walks. Her spouse had commented that he thought she seemed “a little happier”. Later the woman noted she had succeeded in remembering and writing down a sequence of numbers after hearing them, and reported feeling more confident about taking directions. Midway through training the woman reported, to her great surprise, that her speech was becoming more fluent, with improved word retrieval. Later she remarked that she had not felt the tingling in her hands for quite some time, that her blood pressure was apparently better controlled, and that she no longer had bouts of dizziness. At discharge from in-office training sessions the woman’s spouse spoke of his gratefulness at “having my wife back”; she had begun to drive short distances again. The woman transitioned thereafter to daily home-training.

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