The common wisdom is that once those with head injuries, strokes, and spinal-cord injuries have gone through rehabilitation, they are assumed to be "permanent, stationary, and stable." They are thought to be incapable of further recovery and are told to expect to remain at essentially the same levels of depression and paralysis for the rest of their lives. New evidence makes us doubt this "wisdom" and its implied hopelessness.
Preliminary results with the Synergizer, a computerized EEG biofeedback system, have shown the possibility of liberating patients with these medical problems so they begin to move again, regain sensation, rise from depression, and find increased energy. Because the system is new and is being used to treat patients with massive head injuries, no one is tap dancing or tickling the ivories quite yet. One patient, however, paralyzed for fifteen years after bruising his lower spine, was moving after a half-dozen twenty-minute sessions. In just two sessions, the handwriting of a patient who suffered a mild stroke seven years ago returned to normal. Another patient, who had a massive stroke seven years ago, began to crawl and turn in bed again, and snuggled up against her husband for the first time in many years. Most of the patients with mild and moderate head injuries are showing decreased depression, absence of explosiveness and irritability, easier sleeping, and increased fine-motor abilities after sessions of five to twenty minutes.
It will take years of research to understand how provocative feedback systems such as the Synergizer work. However, recent results are already taking us to previously inconceivable places in modern rehabilitation. Furthermore, this technology paints a clearer picture of how the brain attempts to protect us from psychological and physical trauma - protection that can backfire and further limit us - and how to facilitate our growth into health.
Synergizer: $495. Synetic Systems: (800) 388 6345, +1 (206) 632 1722.
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