Posted by Daniel Hoffman, M.D. on March 20, 2005, at 19:23:33
In reply to Re: rEEG System Helps Guide Prescribing » Daniel Hoffman, M.D., posted by Ritch on March 20, 2005, at 16:42:48
> > I ran across this thread and thought I'd shed some light on this confusion. A QEEG is a digital EEG (previous EEG's cannot be used to extract the data you want). What you DO with the data is the important issue. Everything in this thread has been talking about different uses than the article or the medication effects you're searching for. An rEEG is a "referenced" EEG originally done by years of research from 2 very bright and ethical scientist. The digital EEG is sent through a database that correlates the brain's electrical activity with the drug's known effects on the brainwaves. Therefore a more precise statistical analysis can, in essence, produce a report whereby people with your brainwaves have "X" probability of a positive response with the medication or combination of medications suggested. For those of us who've used this, our independant analysis seems to range from 72-95% success (being defined as "was the database either essential or very important" in getting the patient to our final regieme. I can no longer see practicing psychiatry without something like this. We are beyond the point of "throwing it against the wall to see what sticks" and this is the beginning of a new horizon, I believe. The website for the company is www.cnsresponse.com
> > Daniel Hoffman, M.D. - Neuropsychiatrist
>
> So, a QEEG is an *individual* digital EEG that is done on an individual specific patient? I think I've gotten that one. However, the understanding of the composition of the rEEG database is still a little muddy to me. Also, do all psychiatric medications alter brainwave activity? How well do brainwaves mirror or reflect psychopathology? Can someone be indisputably schizophrenic (i.e.) and have a statistically normal QEEG? How would that square with this concept? Just curious...The rEEG database takes the digital (QEEG) and first compares the patient's brain to a normative database. Then it takes these "abnormalities" and by using formulas etc (knowing the drug signature of each medication) it matches the patients brain to which medications will balance it. It does not contain the atypical antipsychotic medication at this time. It does not always match with our current nomenclature. For example, many patients who look depressed don't even show an antidepressant on the radar screen. Is that depression? a subtype? A study of 39 patients who were given 17 different diagnoses all turned out to have the same brain and respond to the same drug. I've never seen a patient with significant clinical symptoms have a normal rEEG, but I have seen patients who come back saying that having gotten off the medicine for the test in the first time in 10 years they feel better, and the rEEG results suggest that not very much is wrong with them. The schizophrenia example is not the best, since again, those meds aren't in the database - yet.
poster:Daniel Hoffman, M.D.
thread:455823
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050317/msgs/473327.html