I want to know if neurofeedback at the Drake institute is a scam?

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.

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

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!

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