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EEG test analysis helps prescribe psychiatric medicine

CNS Response [1] has developed technology to compare a patient’s EEG data with a large database of other patients, their EEGs, psychiatric medicines they have tried, and their outcomes. This analysis has been found to be capable of identifying atypical and combination medication prescriptions that work even in formerly treatment-resistant patients. They are calling their technology “rEEG” or referenced EEG.

Newsweek was among the first to break this story in mass media in their article “Putting Brains on the Couch [2]” on page 47 of the September 3, 2007 issue.

This technology appears to have the potential to revolutionize the determination of medication prescriptions for mental illnesses. It holds particular promise for patients who have been unable to benefit from many medications tried without good results. We suspect that it may be a means to cut through the confusion of uncertain psychological diagnoses, especially in patients with co-morbid conditions such as depression, personality disorders, substance addictions, and eating disorders.

If you know of somebody who has not had success for treatment of depression using normal medications, there is a trial enrolling patients that may be able to help establish the effectiveness of rEEG in such cases. Click on rEEG Guided Pharmacotherapy of Subjects With Depression Treatment Failure [3] for more information.

Newsweek: Putting Brains on the Couch [2]

For an EEG, which typically costs about $150 and takes 45 minutes, a patient has about 20 electrodes pasted to his scalp, where they measure the electrical activity of neurons—brain waves—directly beneath. In the 1980s, researchers tried to base diagnoses on EEGs, but it didn’t work. The same squiggles could mean different illnesses, and one illness could be marked by different EEGs. The new use of EEGs skips the diagnosis (a label like “anxiety disorder”) and goes straight to a recommended treatment. An EEG is compared with a database that includes 13,000 pairings of EEGs with which drugs helped in each case. A California company called CNS Response, which runs the database, finds a match and sends the physician an analysis indicating which drugs patients with that EEG are sensitive or resistant to.

CNS Response company website [1]

What Is rEEG®?
One in four of us will suffer a diagnosable mental illness in a given year. And when that happens, our doctors will face a vast array of prescription drugs, with little more than symptoms to go on. No surprise, then, that treatment failures in disorders like depression range from 40-60%.

“We have discovered biomarkers which predict the probably effectiveness of specific drugs based on the unique electrical signature of each person’s brain. That is, these markers aren’t used to diagnose, but rather to specifically guide treatment. Some call it personalized medicine.”

We call it Referenced-EEG®, a patented process which has helped thousands. In a series of clinical trials on patients who suffered for years without responding to treatment, physicians guided over 75% of them to medications that worked. Often the right medication was a novel combination of two medications. And sometimes, the right answer was no medication at all.

CNS Response Provides Poster Review Regarding The Use Of SSRIs In Children And Adolescents [4]

CNS Response, Inc. (OTCBB: CNSO) reported today the results of a study presented at the U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress by Daniel Hoffman, M.D., Chief Medical Officer for CNS Response. The poster presentation, titled “First Do No Harm: Children and SSRIs,” provided an analysis of the utilization of SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) as a first-line treatment in children or adolescents without the benefit of a physiologic marker technology, such as CNS Response rEEG(R)-guided pharmacotherapy.

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2 Comments To "EEG test analysis helps prescribe psychiatric medicine"

#1 Pingback By Losing Weight…Yeah Right! » Blog Archive » Lamentable Jamarion Puckett » Blog Archive » Acai Berry On January 24, 2009 @ 5:03 pm

[…] EEG test analysis helps prescribe psychiatric medicine | angiemedia […]

#2 Comment By Dr M On March 21, 2011 @ 11:55 pm

rEEG or Referenced EEG is as a tool for assessing mental health is a “brain SCAM”. The data base used as reference is based upon “non medicated” populations therefore if, for example you are on Tamoxifen for Cancer, you are not elegible, need to be off ANY MEDICATIONS to qualify for valid results. Most mental health pts. are ON meds and many cannot safely DC meds for 2 -4 weeks to establish comparative validity to a “nonmedicated population database”. “Off meds includes vitamins, cardiac meds, thyroid, anti anxiety, antidepressaants, estrogen blockers, virtually ANY medication or supplement must be DC in order to have valid results attributed to “non medicated pts”. Unrealistic. Also unsafe in a psychiatric population. Needs a broader and realistic comparative database.