alpha stim

Has anybody heard of the Alpha-stim. It is a little machine that uses microcurrents to reset the brain waves to the alpha state or so says the website..It is fda approved to treat anxiety/depression and pain. I was just wondering if anyone used this product and how it worked for them.

[JSGeare]

These are sort of off-shoot of "electro-shock," which psychairtists use (or used) to stimulate the brain whenever bad thoughts or ideations occurred. The Alpha-stim unit works by putting tiny electrical voltages into your head, with the hoped-for result that whatever's bugging you (pain, anxiety, migraines) will go away or get better.

The FDA has approved the device for marketing, so it does not fall into the category of a "quack" treatment. And, the use of electrical current to stimulate the brain is a practice of long standing with a history of favorable results some of the time. It doesn't appear that anyone can be hurt by the gizmos.

My recommendation is to run it by a psychiatrist for an opinion. While it may be effective in some cases, there is a complete lack of any scientific data which would qualify it as a break-through technology.

I hope you'll clue us in on what the shrink tells you.

Thanks for asking.

[satellite41]

I suffer from trigeminal neuralgia in addition to generalized anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and insomnia. My psychologist has been looking into the alpha-stim machine and doing some very in-depth research with people who have used it, as well as double blind studies, and the like. He will be ordering two machines for the office soon, and hopefully it will be of some help with my chronic pain as well as the anxiety and depression symptoms. I'll keep you posted. Good luck!

[primetime21]

thank you..
hope to hear back soon cause anxiety is driving me crazy..

[JSGeare]

Please do me and this forum a HUGE favor:

First, join the community; details below.

Second, tell your psych that the Anxiety forum is INTENSLY interested in his research. Especially the double-blind studies. If you don't mind giving me his contact data (in a private message to me -NOT on the open forum) I'd like to ask him if he will share his findings with us. You, of course, may do the same.

Thanks ...and here's how to join: Its easy -just click the Join Link -enter some profile information about yourself -even a picture if you care to- and anything you think would help us get to know you faster and better, and you can change this material whenever you like. You will also be accessible to receive private messages when other members click the name you've given yourself -sort of a "push to talk" feature. After you've done that, spend some time just using various features of the forum. For example, to see all the posts or responses that someone has made, just click their handle, go to their profile, click Posts, and read to your heart's content. You may also enter search terms -including member names- in the search box at the upper right of your screen and the system will retrun everything matching the term(s) you entered. This INCLUDES a drug database that will give you both user posts about drugs as well as the medical information about the drug. A great way to get quick answers about therapeutic effect, side effects, interactions, etc.

One of the profile categories is your mood, which you may change anytime you like.

Along the right side of your screen is a section of Recent Activity, which not only alerts you to new posts, but new ANYTHING, including journal entries and mood. This is a way to telegraph the community at large without actually creating a separate post. Thus, if you see a friend's mood has changed while you are working on a response or post, it can alert you to send them a private message to learn more or simply let them know you're thinking of them. Likewise, if you are going to be "out," you could enter something like "off line for the night" as your mood, and people would know you're away from the forum for awhile.

If you do this kind of exploring and experimenting right away, you'll be up-to-speed quickly. If you see the message you are reading now as part of a direct response I (or anyone) has made to one of your posts, it was probably copied and pasted from this journal. I hate form letters and auto-responses as much as anyone -but I also hate forgetting to tell people what they need to know, so this is my safety-net. Consider it as part of your "Welcome" kit. So -please join and try things out.

You might also want to read my entries for the "Right Click Trick" and "When in Haste, Use Copy 'n Paste" for some other convenient time-savers.

We're glad you are here!

-JSGeare, Community Leader

[amish1979]

http://www.****.com
There is some scientific data for you on the subject.

I tried one 20-minutes session with an Alpha-Stim yesterday (during a CBT session) and I think they may be on to something with this.  It is pretty darned expensive to get a unit, and even renting one looks to be close to $100 /month but it is something I may educate myself on a little bit more before I cast it off as quack science.

Definitely cost-prohibitive though.  Yikes.

[amish1979]

You found me out, I'm really a sales person for alpha-stim. Thank you for blocking out my link to the scientific trails of this treatment option.  Bless your censorship.