I want to take my daughter off of Adderall, and the Drake Institute offers a possible "cure" for ADHD using neurofeedback. Are they just a (very expensive) scam, preying on the desperate? Is that why insurance will not cover it?
Q: I want to know if neurofeedback at the Drake institute is a scam?
Answers (12)
6/ 5/08 10:59am
Hey Kay,
During the 90's, a couple who belonged to my adult ADD support group decided to investigate the potential benefits of neurofeedback. He was in his 60's at the time. He benefited.
His partner, equally impressed with the results, trained as a neurofeedback technician and then joined the clinic.
She briefly provided services here then a contract was secured to provide neurofeedback to children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) on the other side of the state. Sadly, less than a year after she began this work, she had an accident following a surgery and passed away. Her mother told me that at the funeral, most, if not all, of the parents of the FAS children related how much the neurofeedback training had improved the lives of their children.
I have another friend who tried it 20 years ago with poor results. Many years later it was discovered that he had a brain injury to the frontal lobes, the result of a difficult birth. He did not respond well to the neurofeedback, but he didn't respond well to medication either.
Neurofeedback appears to be helpful to some people with ADHD, but interestingly, it doesn't help everyone. As mentioned in the previous post, a certain number of treatments must be done before it can be determined if continuing with the treatment will be helpful. This is true for children too, not just adults.
If there is an support group for parents of ADD children or ADD adults in the area of the Drake Institute, you might consider attending a few meetings. Once there, you might have an opportunity to connect with families who have recieved treatment from the Drake Institute and get some feedback. If that's not possible, the group leader might be able to put you in touch with one or more families by phone.
Winnie, an adult ADD advocate
5/23/12 2:20pm
Dear Lorena,
Your dated post was recently forwarded to me. I regret that you did not get the relief and improvement that you were seeking from the Drake Institute's treatment. I was never notified by my office of a refund for unused treatment sessions nor any small claims situation. I apologize for any difficulty you had with our office. There were issues with the office management team at Drake that I take full responsibilty for which were corrected in the summer of 2010 and the management team was replaced. In auditing our records of the last 3 years , we have been unable to verify a small claims case. Please let me know if you were taken of.
Lorena, anything Drake could do clinically today to try to help you, I would provide at no professional fee. We do get very good results with approximately 80% of our patients and I am sorry that our efforts did not improve your life. Sometimes there are correctable factors or treatment modifications that can improve a patient's prognosis. In our ongoing pursuit to advance patient care, we recently acquired new, breakthrough brainmapping analysis and neurofeedback technology, that has transformed our treatment to another level. As many as all 19 regions of the brain can be trained simultaneously to optimize shifting the brain to more normalized functioning in improving specific symptoms. We have had patients achieve breakthroughs now that were not possible for them before.
Please contact us, if you are still having symptoms, and I can try to ascertain if our new technology, FDA registered, has a reasonable chance of helping you. There would be no charge for additional care.
David Velkoff,M.D.,M.A.
Medical Director
Drake Institute
6/ 1/09 4:08pm
My son (8 at the time) went through the Drake program for ADHD a year ago. It helped him dramatically. He is still an impluslive child, but now he has an ability to focus and engage in tasks that he used to lack copmletely, he also now have selfcontrol (still in need of improvement) that was not existant then.
5/27/12 1:49pm
It’s been 8 ½ years since my son Zachary went through the Drake Institute program. He was 12 years old and in the 7th grade. Zak was a very smart young man but the older he got the more he really struggle with school and discipline. Not because he couldn’t do the work but because he could not manage the tasks. It was very difficult to give Zak instruction and teach him things because he had great difficulty staying on task. When he was younger we just figured he would grow out of it but the older he got the more difficult it was to deal with his inability to understand direction, discipline etc. It often seemed as though he was just being a bad kid, not listening and not taking instruction. Zak was not a hyper child, but we often referred to him as busy. He was antsy and often could not keep his hands to himself and would lose focus all the time. He needed to touch things and people unnecessarily. Loud areas like restaurants were often difficult for him. The mixed noises would really bother him and cause him to misbehave.
As Zak’s mom I knew he had problems but because Zak was not hyper I really felt as though I could give him the tools to be able to handle these issues. My husband, who is Zak’s step-dad also noticed Zak’s struggles and felt as though he needed help. We both would spend sleepless nights trying to figure out why we could not get through to him. We heard the advertisements for Drake Institute on the radio and a lot of what they said made sense to what we were dealing with at home. We went to Drake Institute for the free consultation and could not believe how much information they taught related to what we was going on with Zak.
Zak proceeded to attend the 40 sessions. As a family this became a new normal to fit these appointments into our lives. But we understood the importance of Zak going 3-4 times a week. We changed our lives and schedules around to accomplish the goal. Along the way my husband and I gained tools on how communicate better with him and help him use the tools he was learning. We made sure his little sister, grand-parents, aunts, uncles and teachers all understood the program and what they could do to help Zak as well. We all learned a lot about children with ADD and similar difficulties as well.
Zak proceeded to end middle school much better than he began. He went on to High School with much more confidence and an ability to truly understand how intelligent he was and had the tools to do his best. Below is a list of some things Zak was able to accomplish during his time in High School.
- GPA average 3.7-4.0
- Honor Roll - 2005-2008
- Scored above average on all Standardized Testing
- Outstanding Student-Citizenship 2005-2008
- Outstanding Achievement Award in Math 2008
- Football 2005-2009
- Varsity Football 2007-2009
- Scholar/Athlete Award Football-2008 & 2009
- Debate Team Teasurer-2007-2008
- Debate Team-President Senior year 2008-2009
- Forensic League/Superiority Awards for Debate 2008
- Mind Madness 2nd place 2008
- Volunteer for the Relay for Life 2005-2008
- Volunteer for Special Olympics 2008
- Traveled to Europe in Spring 2008 and 2009 (Munich, Berlin, Prague, Lucerne, London, France) with fellow students on an educational trip.
- Receive multiple acceptance letters from UC colleges
Zak is a Junior at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He made the Dean’s list his first year of college. He plans to do oversees studies his senior year. He is currently a staffer for the UC Santa Cruz Ski and Snowboard club. He has taken many snowboarding, river rafting and camping trips with the club. He also enjoys many of the inter-mural sports and has been a captain of several teams. He is also in a fraternity.
He is pursuing a degree in business and will then continue on to get his Master’s degree. He would like to combine his love of sports and numbers and work for an athletic team or sporting company as a CFO.
Over the years, often times when we are having a prideful moment, we will talk about what Drake did for Zak. We have shared Zak’s story with people and have seen other success story come out of Drake Institute as well. My nephew also went through the program at age 7. He is doing so well in 4th grade and we have really noticed a difference in his behavior.
I hope Zak’s story will inspire other families to go through the program for their children. Zak had potential to do great things. Drake Institute gave him the tools to accomplish them.
Sincerely,
Gayle Johnson
Proud and grateful mom
6/ 4/08 11:57pm
I can give you a good objective answer, but it won't be too brief. I live very near Drake but did a lot of on line and phone research of many opportunities before I decided to go to Drake (There are a lot of opportunities to be found as well as devices that you work at home with under the direction of a medical person as well as a Dr Amen and another clinic in Lake Forest). I am an adult so Drake would only do 15 initial sessions "to see if I could respond" to their treatments. I did and at the same time resolved the goal of this whole thing is to separate mental (thought) and physiological stresses and anxieties through the process of relaxation and focus. Soon after, I further resolved that the pace of improvement they set would be extremely expensive so I cancelled my last month's appointments. Also, after about twenty sessions I was not able to reduce the huge amount of medications, which is the original reason for my starting. I met with them and stated that I was not getting much 'bang for my buck' and would not continue. The result is I will have to take them to small claims court to get my unused deposit returned. Are they a scam; not an apparent one. The field of neurofeedback is relatively young and not approved by the FDA(?). In retrospect I think that the field is too new and holding field trials with control groups would be very expensive --and what person would want to invest the time and be getting a placebo. These are at least some of the reasons insurance won't cover it. My biggest disappointments are slow speed of improvement and inability to reduce the medications I am taking. PS: I have all their relaxation exercises as well as Tai Chi exercise DVD to use if I could just slow down and focus enough to use them.
5/23/12 2:14pm
Dear Nelsong,
My staff has recently brought your dated post to my attention. I do not know who you are but you seem to be a genuine patient who didn't get the improvement you were hoping for. Without knowing who you are and reviewing your file, I cannot comment on why the treatment was not more helpful for you, but it does take at least 30 plus treatments. Even more sometimes if significant dosages of medications are involved. Seeing the treatment through to the end is essential as patients vary in their rate of improvements. We recently were able to help an Autistic child improve to a level whereby he was able to get off of all 8 medications. It took over 100 treatments, but his life has been rescued.
We do help approximately 80% of our patients and always regret when someone's life is not improved. Though no treatment works 100% of the time for every patient, sometimes there can be correctable factors and treatment modifications that can increase an individual's prognosis.
If there were unused treatment sessions, please let me know if you were taken care of.
In our ongoing pursuit to continually advance patient care, we recently were able to acquire breakthrough brainmap guided neurofeedback technology, FDA registered, that enables a patient to do neurofeedback on as many as all 19 areas of the brain simultaneously to strengthen brain functioning . We have patients today who make extraordinary improvement with this new technology that would not have had this level of improvement before. The military is now using it to treat victims of Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stess Disorder.
If things are not going well for you today, you are welcome to contact me to discuss your case to see if I feel we could further help you with the new technology. You would not be charged for additional care.
David Velkoff,M.D.
Medical Director
Drake Institute
7/31/09 9:27pm
In my opinion the Drake Institute is a scam. My son was suppose to start a program at the clinic in Vista and just when the program started, they closed the Vista clinic.
I have been trying to get my money back since they were unable to deliver the program that we paid for at the Vista clinic, but NO ONE will call me back. I just keep getting promises that someone will call me back and even Dr. Velkoff fails to return my calls. I have been calling for 7 weeks now.
Please do not make the same mistake that I made, DO NOT trust these people!
I am seeking legal advice on how I should proceed to get a refund.
Parents who have been scammed by Drake should get together and file legal action!
How sad that Drake takes advantage of Parents who just want the best for their child. These are the Parents who have struggled for years to try and help their child only to get scammed by Drake. This is like pouring salt into a wound!
8/ 3/09 1:03am
Here is an update regarding my comments about the Drake Institute not returning my phone calls after I requested a refund. The day after I entered the email on this website, I received a call from the Drake Institute promising once again that I will receive a refund within the next few days. Let's see what happens! I will keep you updated on my progress.
9/24/09 11:16pm
I am please to say that I finally received a refund from the Drake Institute as promised. It is to bad that I had to go through so much grief to get my refund.
I am no longer a Drake victim!
10/ 9/09 5:06pm
Regarding the Drake Institute:
I have had the privilege of obtaining a very in-depth understanding to the operations of the drake institute. I would like to express my personal view on this matter.
I cannot attest to the validity of their treatment I would however like to point out the following:
After months of working with this company I soon realized that the program they offer is not a diamond in the ruff, it is my personal opinion that your children can benefit greatly through treatment at a different clinic. Although they have a developed program, the cost of such programs are enormous in comparison to other clinics in the immediate area that offer a more personalized treatment. Many of the operations I bared witness to were unethical and unjust using promotions to obtain bizarre payment methods such as cash.
I have seen a very close personal friend of mine undertake the treatment with outstanding results, changes that would have taken years to adopt. I am very optimistic about the program, but must emphasize that a company is as good as the people managing it and after my experience I would never recommend this treatment through the Drake Institute as the people running it only want one thing "money" at all costs.
A clinic should at all times be about the patients, and not the profits; issues that any company has should never be taken out on the clients as I have seen time and time again with Drake.
I would like to express that I too have Aspergers and ADHD, and would like to relay a message to many parents that do not fully grasp the benefits of being Aspergers and ADHD. The Drake Institute will repeatedly tell their patients that they need the treatment as if this was a malfunction. I would like to point out through my personal experience that Aspergers and ADHD has only worked as a blessing for me. It has given me an edge in the work place allowing me to understand complex situations, most would have never seen through my point of view. It has also assisted in my high IQ of 161 and my immense liking to science subjects and business finance as a result, this liking has sky rocketed me into becoming an Executive Director of a financial firm structuring multi-million dollar transactions all of this came from my parent just taking the time to recognize my strengths. I understand how Aspergers and ADHD effects lives very well as all of my 4 siblings have it as well. I strongly encourage all parents that have children with this blessing of Aspergers and ADHD to find the subject that your child thrives in and support them as much as you can for you will find that these kids are child prodigies if presented with the right opportunity.
To conclude I do recommend biofeedback and neurofeedback as treatment to assist children with Aspergers and ADHD weaknesses such as sociability, keeping on task, and self-confidence boosting, but I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS TREATMENT THROUGH THE DRAKE INSTITUTE OF BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE.
PS I have read other posts referencing that Drake is horrible with refunds, I also personally understand the frustration as I too am owed thousands in arrearages from drake, my firm has waited now 6 months for payment and damages payment nothing has come of it.
Thank you for reviewing this post as I hope it will not cause any legal consequences for me I will keep you posted as to the outcome of this honesty and freedom of speech on this forum.
10/21/09 2:00am
Who are Drake Institute competitors that you recommend in Los Angeles or San Fernando Valley?
2/28/10 5:56pm
2/ 5/12 9:18pm
Sharonzz,
Can you tell me what does this cost at addtreatmentcetners.org
3/16/11 3:23pm
I hope this reaches you. I would like to ask some questions and will try to make it as brief as possiable. My 8 yr old nephew is recently come to stay with me for a while. He has ADHD and has a severe case. He is behind in school and has already been held back a year. He does much better with me I feel maybe because the structure is more at our house. I can not find anything he is interested in. Everytime he does well at something he doesnt want to stick with it. I am open to any suggestions.
5/25/12 5:30pm
Dear InsightOnDrake,
I am glad for you that you were blessed with a combination of a wonderful parent, a gifted IQ as well as other personal strengths and abilities that have enabled you to create a fulfilling life. Many children, however, who come to us with the symptoms that make up the diagnosis of Aspergers are in deep social pain and cut off from having meaningful relationships. Sadly, they are vulnerable to being ostracized and sometimes bullied no matter how loving their parents are.
Children with ADHD frequently come to us with damaged self esteem because of their academic struggles and unfairly comparing themselves to their peers. We have many parents of our patients who are exceptionally loving and nurturing of their children, but it still cannot fully protect them from the increased vulnerabilities their children have because of ADHD and not meeting behavioral or academic expectations.
We have an extraordinary treatment with the most advanced neurofeedback technology in the world. However, without the support and insight that my clinical staff provides parents, the neurofeedback treatment would not help these children/adolescents develop to the same degree.
I do not know who you are, but agree that Drake Institue was being mismanaged that was personally painful to me. Fortunately, it did not interfere with our clinical services. I take full responsibility for the management problems and by the summer of 2010, I was able to correct the management issues and have replaced the management team. If you are owed any debt that was missed, please go through the normal channels of contacting our accounting department.
Again, I am pleased for you that your life has worked out so well.
David Velkoff,M.D.
Medical Director
Drake Institute
3/23/10 8:40pm
It didn’t work for me -very expensive--I think it's as close to a scam as you can get--he promised an over 95% success rate-WAAYYY over promising results/selling this---the relaxation bio-feedback helps you be aware that you are tense-but the actual treatment to retrain your brain was pure crap---I only wish I could have gotten a refund---suspicious during my treatment i asked several administers of the treatments what they thought of this and they seemed positive but with ambivalence towards my non-success. I went back on adderal then after sometime when it didn’t help at all I moved on and have since decided to go off adderall...life is more challenging without meds but when I get sleep and am interested in what I’m doing I’m ok I reckon----
5/24/12 1:46pm
Dear Sndrtst,
My clinic recently sent me your dated post. I am sorry that you did not experience the improvement you were seeing. Unfortunately, you misunderstood what our expected clinical success rates are and what was communicated. We are very open and proud of our approximately 80% significant improvement rate. We go out of our way to communicate this to all new patients, including stating it in the informed consent with each patient before beginning care.
Without knowing who you are and examining your file, I cannot comment on why it didn't work for you. Your comment of "the actual treatment to retrain your brain was pure crap" was made I assume out of your frustration and disappointment. Majority of our patients are significantly helped and their lives are deeply improved. Not everyone gets off medication but many do, and most of those patients that may not be able to eliminate medication completely still achieve an improved level of functioning.
There is overwhelming peer review scientific studies on the effectiveness of EEG biofeedback (neurofeedback) for ADHD. You can easily do an online search with the National Library of Medicine by going to PUBMED and search for EEG biofeedback for ADHD. It has been classified as "an evidence based treatment" which is the gold standard in Medicine.
Aside from all of this, my concern is you came to us to be helped and felt that your life did not improve from our efforts and your participation. If you are still experiencing difficulty, I would like you to call me to discuss the possibility of helping you with our newest technology. We would not charge you. If I feel there is a possibility that you may be able to benefit from the newest brain map guided neurofeeback, FDA registered, that we recently acquired, then I would give you additional care at no fee, This new technology is an extraordinary breakthrough, leading edge in the world, that enables the patient to train and strengthen multiple functional connections in the brain simultaneously. As many as 19 regions of the brain can be treated/trained simultaneously. We have had patients of all ages make exceptional improvements utilizing our new technology that were not possible for them before. The US military is now utilizing this technology in treating veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Please recontact us if you are still in need of care.
David Velkoff,M.D.
Medical Director
Drake Institute
PS. I need to address your comments on a personal level. I am a second generation physician with an MD and a Masters degree in psychology. This year The Drake Institute is 32 years old and has seen and treated upwards of 12000 individual patients. There has been much sacrifice and care and concern and commitment to maintain the Institutes reason for being here, to help patients. The word scam was never more inappropriate, not just to us but to our patients and their families who have helped contribute to our clinical success and, without the use of drug therapy, a short term only solution. It would be appreciated if this type of unkind and insulting and uncivil language, which couldn’t be any further from the truth, be eliminated. Thank you, Dr. David Velkoff
5/24/12 5:45pm
Dear Patient,
In carefully auditing our records of the last 3 years ,we have been unable to verify if this occurred. Please contact us with your name and the patient's name so we can be sure you were taken care of. We were disappointed that we had to relocate the Vista clinic to our main center in Irvine and tried to give families at least a month's notice, and stopped accepting new patients to be treated at the Vista location. I am very sorry for any difficulty you had with our office and the inconvenience. There were issues with the management team at Drake that I take full responsibilty for which were corrected in August of 2010 and the management team was replaced.
I hope your family member is doing well today.
David Velkoff, M.D.,M.A.
Medical Director
Drake Institute
PS. I need to address your comments on a personal level. I am a second generation physician with an MD and a Masters degree in psychology. This year The Drake Institute is 32 years old and has seen and treated upwards of 12000 individual patients. There has been much sacrifice and care and concern and commitment to maintain the Institutes reason for being here, to help patients. The word scam was never more inappropriate, not just to us but to our patients and their families who have helped contribute to our clinical success and, without the use of drug therapy, a short term only solution. It would be appreciated if this type of unkind and insulting and uncivil language, which couldn’t be any further from the truth, be eliminated.
Thank you,
Dr. David Velkoff
11/14/09 11:26pm
I'm in the process of starting home use of a unit for neurofeedback (NeuroMatrix). I'm actually researching it right now to find out info about it because we didn't have any documentation on how to use it at home. It seems pretty straight forward to use from the description. Some of the keywords I found while reading tonight are shown below. It sounds like Brainwave Entertainment is the most important concept behind the treatment. I went to school for electrical engineering and it sounds like Faradays law, like mutual inducance for a transformer. The part I'm not clear about is how specific networks of the brain are targeted. But it seems that if they can target certain areas of the brain, then they can send electrical impulses through areas that are not functioning correctly and open the pathway up so it works. My wife teaches music and one of her students has gone through the process with Dr Sams in Dallas. The parents and my wife have told me that the results were pretty impressive. I went in for an evaluation to analyze my brain functioning. I did really well on the tests they administered, but there were some areas that were isolated that weren't functioning correctly which showed up on the brain scans. The doctor asked me if I had ever had any traumatic injuries which I have, and it turned out that the area where I was hurt was one of the trouble spots. There were areas where the signal frequencies and levels were abberant, and other areas which were not communicating properly with other areas of the brain.
I've checked out my doctors credentials and they are pretty impressive. The neurofeedback sounds to simple to be able to solve such complex problems with the brain. But just because it's simple doesn't mean it doesn't work. I should add that I take adderral, and it's become more of a detriment than helpful. The medication is really hard on my system, and the generic adderall cause mood swings, particularly agressive behavior. I've switched to the XR and have had better results but I have to honestly say that I can't function without it and I don't want to take it anymore. I started taking this prior to my wife and myself becoming more educated about naturopathic medicine, organic food, etc. So, know the goal is to get rid of the adderal.
I've found from my own personal experience that doctors most frequently are not healers. They band-aid the problem with prescription drups which helps big pharma dig in deaper. A side note, but the same train of thought... I hurt my hand in college and had to quit playing music because of the pain which was devastating. I've been playing since I was 5 years old and have seriously studied piano, classical guitar, and violin until my injury. For 12 years I couldn't play music and every doctor I went to said I had tendonitis. I went to a chiropractor because of a back injury working out. He ask me if I had any other pain that needed work on, and I told him my hand. He identified the problem quickly... it was scar tissue on the nerve of my middle finger that was causing referred pain on the top knuckle of my index finger. He broke up the scar tissue, and the pain was completely gone. I can't explain to you the feeling of being able to play again. My chiropractor said I had my bliss back and he was right. Sorry to go off on a tangent, but the point is is that there are many folks involved in other ways of treating our health issues, and they are the true healers. You need to get away from the adderall and any other heavyweight medications. So many of them are addictive and are just a trap. And also, you may want to check out stuff related to your diet such as excitotoxins, which I believe MSG is defined as. It causes brain cells to fire without reason which can lead to the brain cell(s) dying. There is an article by Dr Russell Blaylock call Excitotoxins - The Taste That Kill if you would like to read about it that's pretty good. I wish you the best of luck, and I'll provide feedback if you like about how my treatment goes. Dr Sams in Dallas invented the NeuroMatrix and I think he's made a tremendous contribution with the work he's done from what I've read...
Best wishes
Will
Brainwave Entertainment
Neurofeedback
Neuroplasticity
EEG Topography
EEG fRMI
Electroencephalography
4/ 6/10 4:39pm
I took my son to Drake when he was 11 years old. He was having difficulty in school to a point where he couldn't do any homework at all by himself. He also was having trouble socially with all the boys in his small private school. After he had treatment everything changed. He could sit and complete big reports on his own and kept up with his daily school assignments. I need to add that he was completely resisitant to the whole treatment. He said he was faking it during the treatments, but it helped him regardless. His social skills also improved. He is now a well adjusted 15 year old. We are very happy!
7/27/10 2:06pm
Drake Speaks
In four of five patients, Drake significantly reduces or eliminates symptoms. However, one patient in five changes slightly or not at all. At Drake, we are always searching to improve results which are very substantial for 80% of our patients but no doubt disappointing for the one in five. Sometimes the unsuccessful patients blame themselves; sometimes they blame us; and we wish they would not blame anyone. We have treated well over 11,000 patients in 30 years and that means over 9,000 patients moved forward with their improved lives, with appproximately 2000 having had limited to no results. We, at Drake, regret that a small few of the patients with limited or no results are presenting (in blogs) a distorted picture of the overall results which, by all medical standards, are excellent.
Our concern is that this small number may be blocking any of the four of five we can help. We want those who can be helped to join the group that have had their lives significantly improved, like the 9000 we've help. That is the reason this practice is here. We regret the one in five, however, Drake and medicine as a science is not perfect.
At Drake we are the best at what we do and after 30 plus years, we want to help all of you that we can.
9/ 4/10 9:56am
I just wrote a long answer and it disappeared. The short answer is YES!
9/ 4/10 10:00am
I just wrote a long answer and it disappeared. The short answer is YES!
10/28/11 10:21am
Neurofeedback ? It sure helped me.
ADD and me strugled through elementry school with two popular medications. High school was a little better in my seinor year. In college I was offered meds and briefly tried them again. This brought me back to mood swings and consentration and focus ups and downs. So I did not revisit this cycle. I pressed forward with out meds.
Much later and to my suprise after my first LENS ( Low Energy Neurofeedback System ) treatment things really got better like a mirical ....for me. All of a sudden the teacher was able to teach the class......but it was ME processing better. I was not so prone to impulsive moments,. Listing was improved...... I really wish this stuff was avaiable when I was eight or younger.
If you look around you read about the Othmers. How they discovered Neurofeedback for their son. Then dedicated their lives to this neuroscience.
Maybe if it is not working for you you are not doing it right or are not able to make the commitment necessary for success. Remember there is always the family support system to concider, diet, and maybe a change in life style.
Neurofeedback is not a scam.
12/ 6/11 12:53pm
We recently went there for an introductory meeting to the Institute. This has to be a scam, there were so many things wrong. The whole thing was one big sales pitch from beginning to end. First they put you in a room and have you watch an hour long infomercial about the Drake program. You get excited because you want to believe. They boast a 3 out of 4 or 8 out of 10 success rate. The video has success stories but not one is after 1995 and there are no follow up stories. They talk about "curing" a kid who had NEVER spoken to his father in a matter of 7 sessions but they show no footage of this person. After the video you are pumped up and the Doctor comes in to go over your situation. He basically regurgitates the exact same information you spent an hour watching. He asked questions about our daughter but didn't seem to really listen to our answers, like he was going through a set of questions in his mind predetermined to lead us down a path. I asked several times when explaining behavior of our child "I'm not sure if some of this is common behavior for an 8 year old and if some is from a greater issue?". Not once did he confirm or even respond to this, any conscious doctor would have given SOME feedback. Our daughter has very slight signs of ADD and was tested at our school. He repeatedly tried to discredit our school system and their testing while reading their report. My wife and I were heavily involved in the school process and we had 5 different people from the district in their analysis, this was not some bogus report and we felt our school took this very seriously. Then he brought in two women that run this clinic to go over the next steps. They put us in this TINY room where we couldn't move and we soon realized these women were the "closers". If you have ever been involved in a high pressure sales situation where they don't want you to leave, you know what I'm talking about. It was like we were suddenly at a meeting for a timeshare or at a pushy car dealership. It suddenly became all about the money and getting us to sign on the dotted line before leaving that room. Every time we told them we wanted to think it over they had a reason why we should do it now, or hand us a different form to fill out. They wanted $6,000 with no payment plan, insurance credit, or even meeting our child. Once you pay, they have you. Fortunately we left without signing anything, then I did a search and found a lot of people who have had bad luck here. The Drake is the worst kind of scam, people who are desperate and struggling, people who want to believe there is help, people who will do anything to help their child, and this "Institute" picks their pocket in their time of need. I could get a year or more worth of private assistance for my daughter at a real learning institute with that $6000. If these people could actually "cure" autism and ADD/ADHD they would own an entire city block and be world renowned. Not only do they claim to cure these things, they say it can be done in a few months, you just need to sign the papers and pay up front in full. Three labels come to mind...Charlatan, Quack, Snake Oil Salesman.
5/28/12 7:37pm
Thank you for this descriptive answer. After hearing about the Drake Institute repeatedly on Dr. Laura, I called to get more information. I was impressed at first that the medical director himself called to get more information about my child, but as I spoke to him, I began to feel that he had a distinct bias against seeing the benefits of having ADD. He also kept calling me "dear" and "honey", which I find extremely annoying. When we began to set up the appointment for the initial consultation, he told me the two times available. Because I am married to a physician and I have two children, i make more than my fair share of appointments and when I selected my preferred time I mispoke out of habit and added, "if that time is available". He immediately responded with, "If it weren't available, I wouldn't be offering it." I realize I have the occassional mental burp, as most of us do, but I found his response rude and his basic manner arrogant. Still, out of an earnest desire to help my child, I scheduled the appointment. Fortunately, fate intervened, and my husband who never gets sick started vomiting on the designated day. I'm glad to have read these reviews.
5/18/12 1:09am
I took my son to the Drake Institute for his ADHD in westlake 7or 8 years ago.
It did not work. we tried for almost three years. I spent thousands of dollars.
I don't know if neurofeedback works for everybody.
5/27/12 9:41pm
Dear Patricia,
This was forwarded to me by our Patient Coordinator at the Drake Institute. I do not know who your family member was that we treated 7 years ago at Drake, but am sorry that you did not obtain the improvements you were seeking from our treatment program. The average treatment program is 3 to 4 months duration unless you come from out of town whereby it is then 1 to 2 months. I agree with you that the treatment is not inexpensive in the short run, but can be highly cost effective in the middle and long runs compared to other treatments. Neurofeedback is the most direct treatment available in improving a neurophysiologic disorder such as ADHD.
Our treatment program utilizing brainmap guided neurofeedback significantly helps approximately 80% of our patients. I have doctor colleagues around the country who experience similar improvements in their patients.
Sometimes there are correctable factors or treatment modifications that may improve a patient's prognosis.You are welcome to contact me and I would be pleased to discuss your case and try to understand why your family member was not benefited. There would be no professional fees or charges if I felt there may be a reasonable possibility that additional treatment could help with our new technology.
In our continuous efforts to advance patient care, we recently acquired breakthrough brain map analysis and neurofeedback technology that is so far advanced beyond anything ever available previously to help our patients. As many as all 19 areas of the brain can now be trained simultaneously to optimize brain functioning in targeting specific symptoms. We have had some patients acheive life improving breakthroughs through usage with the new technology that were not possible for them before.
If there is a possibilty today that we can help your family member from 7 years ago, there would be no charge for additional care and treatment probably would not take more than 2 to 4 months.
David Velkoff,M.D.,M.A.
Medical Director
Drake Institute
5/19/12 3:18pm
Drakes Program takes YEARS to work, if it works at all. Don't bother, better options out there that are more affordable.
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By kay— Last Modified: 05/28/12, First Published: 06/04/08
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Hi there, not sure if you have since gone to the Drake. I did, it didnt help one bit. $5,000 later I'm still on meds and frankly ADD is not cureable - i've had to manage it and be creative in my methods of learning. The neurofeedback lessons were not effective. They did the brain scan and definitely found deficiencies in the frontal cortex area - but nothing they taught was beneficial. I sincerely tried too. i was excited that perhaps there would be something that would help me manage my mind and help with concentration and focus, unfortunately i was very dissolutioned. i stopped short of 4 contract sessions. They did not repy to my requests for a refund and i had a devil of time trying to get them to reply. I had to take them to small claims. Shame on them!