Mental illness is one of the most serious problems facing the United States today. It has been estimated that mental illness costs the country hundreds of billions of dollars each year in lost productivity. This is aside from the anguish and heartbreak that mental illness causes for not only its sufferers but also for the family members and friends who are affected by it.
For the first half of the 20th century, Freudian psychoanalysis was the dominant form of treating mental illness in the United States, along with some other forms of often brutal therapy like electro convulsion. Unsurprisingly, these methods of treatment were typically not the slightest bit effective. As a result, the mentally ill were often shuttled away to remote state hospitals where they were consigned to live out their lives in isolation from the rest of society.
But by the 1960s, the first effective drug treatments for mental illness began appearing. Antipsychotic medications like lithium represented a major breakthrough in the treatment of mental illness. Suddenly, large numbers of people with severe mental disorders who were once completely unable to function in society became able to safely be let out of state mental institutions. Over the next few decades, great advancements were made in the area of antidepressant medication as well as medications for the treatment of such diseases as bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactive disorder, also known as ADHD.
It was in the treatment of this latter condition that psychology met its next big controversy, which has not abetted to the present. In the 1970s, it was found that ADHD, which is thought to be present in up to 5 percent of the population, could be effectively treated using amphetamines, a class of powerful stimulant, and other similar drugs. This was good news for modern educators, who were increasingly flummoxed by the large number of children who suffered from this condition and, as a result, were unable to function well in an academic environment.
But despite the high effectiveness of ADHD drugs, there were and continue to be serious problems associated with their use. The amphetamines used have a high potential for abuse. And when they are abused, they carry severe health risks, including death and the development of so-called amphetamine psychosis, a severe and debilitating mental disturbance.
Now, for the first time, there is hope that ADHD and a wide number of other mental conditions that were once thought only to be treatable with drugs can be effectively treated with non-pharmacological means. Neurocore is a new company that uses the science of neurofeedback and neuroplasticity in order to restructure the brains of people who suffer from conditions like ADHD, anxiety and depression.
This new treatment uses a patented process that involves patients doing simple tasks like watching a movie, playing a game or listening to music. Through the use of sophisticated modern EEG equipment, clinicians are able to get a highly accurate picture of a patient’s brain activity. They are then able to monitor that activity, reshaping it subtly by withdrawing and introducing reward stimuli. This process, while incredibly simple, has been shown in peer-reviewed studies to lead to a retraining of the brain. And when it is carried out under the skilled eye of Neurocore clinicians, it can lead to a remarkable improvement in mental health symptoms.
Finally, there is hope for those suffering from mental disorders like bipolar, ADHD and depression. That hope lies in the neuroplastic, drug-free treatment that is currently being pioneered by Neurocore. Their treatment model may well be the way forward in the treatment of most major mental health conditions.