Light & Sound Neurotherapy to Treat
Co-Morbid Depression: A Pilot Study

Several studies have found light and sound neurotherapy (LSN) an effective treatment for depression. LSN strengthens desired brainwave patterns by taking advantage of our brain’s natural tendency to synchronize with pleasant rhythmic stimulation (see white paper for a summary of the research).

This study evaluated LSN’s effectiveness for clients with co-morbid depression participating in Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches (BHOPB) residential substance abuse treatment program.

Subjects:

• 11 LSN and 7 control subjects
• LSN subjects were selected based on high MCMI Dysthymia (M=83.1) and/or MDD (M=78.2) scale scores in their intake assessment
• Control subjects’ Dysthymia and MDD scales scores were less severe averaging 72 and 67.1
• LSN subjects were not told the basis for their selection, only that the program was evaluating a new treatment procedure
• All subjects were administered the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) before and after the LSN intervention
• Due to a family emergency, one LSN subject was discharged without completing the post-treatment measures

LSN Treatment Intervention:

• LSN was administered in a group therapy format using the NeuroAdvantage™ Trainer five afternoons per week for 30 minutes each session for two weeks
• The Trainer stimulated the right hemisphere @ 10hz and left hemisphere @ 19hz designed to help correct hemispheric asymmetries commonly found in QEEG studies of depressed people
• One LSN subject only listened to rhythmic sound stimulation due to a history of photo seizures
• Subjects listened to coaching CDs during their sessions. These CDs combined positive affirmations and guided visualizations with psychoeducation. The four CD titles were:


• Mindfulness Meditation
• Deep Relaxation
• Step 1: Acceptance of Powerlessness
• Beating-the-Blues

Results:

As seen in figure 1, the control group receiving BHOPB’s standard treatment services made substantial improvement on each of the outcome measures decreasing their depression and hopelessness by an average of approximately 50% and improving their self-esteem scores by 25%. These findings validate the significant improvement clients on average make during their participation in BHOPB’s program.

Figure 1:

As shown in figure 2, the NeuroAdvantage group made even greater improvement on the outcome measures compared to the control group. While this was somewhat expected given the greater depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem initially endorsed by the treatment group, the differential magnitude of change was still very substantial. On average, the NeuroAdvantage group’s depression and hopelessness scores decreased by 75% while their self-esteem scores increased by 80%.

Figure 2:

Figure 3 presents the percent of the NeuroAdvantage and control group subjects who "greatly improved" as defined by a 50% or more decrease in depression on the BDI and BHS and a 100% or more improvement in self-esteem on the RSES. The difference in "greatly improved" rates at the individual level between the NeuroAdvantage and control group subjects was very substantial for each measure. This finding suggests that by adding neurotherapy groups to its treatment services, BHOPB will significantly increase the likelihood that every client makes substantial improvement while participating in their program.

Figure 3:

Figure 4 presents the NeuroAdvantage subjects’ rating on a five-point scale of the helpfulness of their neurotherapy group experience compared to other BHOPB treatments (0 = One of the Least Helpful; 2 = About Average; and 4 = One of the Most Helpful).

Figure 4:

The therapist running the NeuroAdvantage treatment group kept a detailed log of subjects’ self-reports before and after the sessions. An analysis of subjects’ self-report data found:

• 9 of 11 improved sleep quality and duration
• 6 of 11 had pleasant dissociative experiences during their sessions (e.g., sense of floating)
• 6 of 11 increased focus and concentration following the sessions
• 6 of 11 decreased anxiety symptoms
• 6 of 11 increased patience and reported being less irritable with others following the sessions
• 5 of 11 reported repressed memory recall during the session, 3 pleasant childhood memories, 2 involving childhood abuse
• 4 of 11 reported decreased or the disappearance of pain following the sessions
• 2/11 reported dramatic improvement or disappearance of facial tics as told to clients by peers

Next Steps:

• Continue NeuroAdvantage groups for clients with co-morbid depression
• Evaluate NeuroAdvantage groups’ effectiveness for clients with co-morbid ADHD
• Evaluate the effectiveness of NeuroAdvantage’s alternating sensory stimulation program as an adjunctive intervention to EMDR for trauma clients
• Evaluate the effectiveness of NeuroAdvantage combined with telephonic coaching to improve continuing care outcomes for discharged clients