LOS ANGELES NEUROFEEDBACK CENTER
CHRONIC PAIN TREATMENT
Managing chronic pain overwhelms you or a loved one, leading you to seek chronic pain treatments. Chronic Pain is a term used to describe pain that lasts beyond the typical time it takes for an illness or injury to heal, generally three months or more. Chronic pain isn’t just a physical condition—it has tremendous influence over you or your loved one’s thoughts and moods and can stem from conditions like heart disease, arthritis, migraines, or diabetes. Chronic pain not only hurts, it can cause depression, isolation, anxiety, loss of work and relationships. Chronic pain affects more people than cancer, diabetes, heart attack and stroke combined. Studies estimate chronic pain costs about $600 billion a year in healthcare costs as well as lost time from work.
Whether you struggle with a fibromyalgia diagnosis, fibromyalgia pain, fibromyalgia syndrome, chronic muscle pain, or chronic pain syndrome, the associated anxiety, depression, and pain itself can make navigating chronic pain treatments difficult. The good news is that chronic pain is treatable with the right blend of approaches. The traditional healing model — take medications, rest, get better — doesn’t always work with this illness. Yet there are ways to reduce pain and rebuild yourself. Read on to learn how LANC’s direct neurofeedback therapy and biofeedback therapy can offer chronic pain treatment and fibromyalgia pain relief without medication.
If your loved one suffering from chronic pain or fibromyalgia, book your first session at a special rate!
(323) 705-3031
FIBROMYALGIA PAIN, CHRONIC PAIN & THE BRAIN
Fibromyalgia is a medical condition characterized by chronic widespread pain and a heightened pain response to pressure. Other symptoms include feeling tired to a degree that normal activities are affected, sleep problems, and troubles with memory. Some people also report restless legs syndrome, bowel or bladder problems, numbness and tingling, and sensitivity to noise, lights or temperature. Fibromyalgia is frequently associated with depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Other types of chronic pain (E.g., cancer pain, arthritis pain, postsurgical pain, & post-trauma pain) are also frequently present.
Pain is a subjective feeling that can be influenced by sensory, affective, and cognitive factors. Chronic pain can have a widespread impact on overall brain function, and both cognitive and psychological factors play roles in the development and management of pain. Clients with long-term pain often present structural and emotional impairments associated with cortical regions of the brain that are linked not only to pain itself, but also to the many co-morbidities that develop in association w/ chronic pain: depression, anxiety and sleep disturbances. The good news is modalities, like direct neurofeedback, use the brain’s neuroplasticity to reset to a healthier, balanced state.
Michael Clark, a psychiatrist and director of the pain treatment program at Johns Hopkins Hospital, explains the underlying neurobiology:
“The disease of chronic pain is more than just acute pain that lasts longer. It has greater intensity, causes impaired function and can migrate beyond the original pain site. The nervous system becomes distorted. Pain receptors get amplified and internal pain blockers minimized, which can make even the lightest touch be perceived as painful.”
“The Los Angeles Neurofeedback team goes above and beyond to care, treat and understand their clients. Such a great experience and truly so beneficial for a numerous amount of reasons. Highly recommend this treatment!”
– K.M., LOS ANGELES CLIENT
TRADITIONAL CHRONIC PAIN TREATMENT
Individuals may work with many medical specialists even as relief remains elusive because specialists can focus only on the pain symptoms. Depending on the severity, clients may choose trigger point injections or more invasive surgical procedures. Complications with allergies to contrast dye and anesthesia can make injections and surgery more complicated for an already inflamed body. Clients with chronic pain may also choose long-term pharmacological treatment; this entails several drawbacks due to the undesirable side-effects that arise with a continued use of analgesic drugs.
There is a constant search for better chronic pain management options, including non-pharmacological approaches like acupuncture, electrical stimulation, cognitive behavioral therapy. When in chronic pain, it can be difficult to motivate yourself to participate in the recommended self-care therapies like physical exercise, and stress management or relaxation techniques like biofeedback, CBT, behavior therapy, massage, and mindfulness-based stress reduction. In the last decades, neurofeedback has been gaining ground as a potentially successful option. Direct Neurofeedback is the newest modality and is unique in that it can lift pain as well as offer reduction in depression and anxiety symptoms providing the clarity to participate in the recommended self-care.
DIRECT NEUROFEEDBACK & MANAGING CHRONIC PAIN
Direct Neurofeedback can have a direct influence on the processing of pain. By the brain adjusting its brainwaves based on feedback about its function, you or your loved one can modify the electrical activity of areas of the brain involved in pain processing, pain perception, or pain memory. This allows the reduction or even elimination of pain, along with many of its co-morbidities, including depression or anxiety. Another mechanism through which neurofeedback can modulate pain is the regulation of the emotional component of pain. The frontal cortex is associated with the feeling of unpleasantness associated with pain, and direct neurofeedback has been found to be able to induce changes in pain affect in clients with acute and chronic pain syndromes, leading to an increased pain tolerance.
Chronic pain can also induce changes in the functional organization of the brain. Direct Neurofeedback can allow the control of pain by improving the neural connectivity between brain regions, thereby inducing long-lasting changes in neuronal networks that can counterbalance the changes induced by chronic pain. Clinical data has demonstrated the efficacy of neurofeedback therapy in a number of chronic pain conditions: it can decrease headache intensity, as well as migraine and pain associated with fibromyalgia. Neurofeedback can also be effective in post-operative pain.
The initial intake session costs only $89 at our West LA and South Bay offices, and is the first step towards chronic pain help.
(323) 705-3031
GET STARTED WITH LANC
During the last decades, neurofeedback training approaches and protocols have been steadily improving, along with its efficacy. As new methods like Direct Neurofeedback arise, it is likely that neurofeedback can gain awareness and importance as a non-pharmacological therapy. Moreover, we know the psychological factors that influence pain perception can modify our body’s biochemical processes. Thoughts can have a direct impact on these processes and potentially produce analgesia. In fact, there is evidence indicating that cognitive control of pain can have a direct effect on opioid activity, stimulating the production of endorphins. LANC’s HeartMath Biofeedback teaches you how to self-regulate your emotions and thoughts using visual feedback and evidence-based techniques.
Although LANC’s DNFB technology is quite sophisticated, the process is simple, painless, and non-invasive. Your brain is guided by instantaneous feedback of changes in your brain’s electrical activity by the millisecond. In 20 neurofeedback sessions with feedback every millisecond, your brain has many chances to reshape itself for greater stability. Greater stability leads to better chronic pain management. Struggling with chronic pain treatment, take a step to fibromyalgia pain relief and treating chronic pain, come in today.
NFB CHRONIC PAIN RESEARCH
Bandura, A., O’Leary, A., Taylor, C., Gauthier, J., & et al. (1987). Perceived self-efficacy and pain control: Opioid and nonopioid mechanisms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53 (3), 563-571 DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.53.3.563
deCharms, R., Maeda, F., Glover, G., Ludlow, D., Pauly, J., Soneji, D., Gabrieli, J., & Mackey, S. (2005). Control over brain activation and pain learned by using real-time functional MRI Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102 (51), 18626-18631 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0505210102
Gorini, A., Marzorati, C., Casiraghi, M., Spaggiari, L., & Pravettoni, G. (2015). A Neurofeedback-Based Intervention to Reduce Post-Operative Pain in Lung Cancer Patients: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial JMIR Research Protocols, 4 (2) DOI: 10.2196/resprot.4251
Ibric, V., Dragomirescu, L., & Hudspeth, W. (2009). Real-Time Changes in Connectivities During Neurofeedback Journal of Neurotherapy, 13 (3), 156-165 DOI: 10.1080/10874200903118378
Kumano, H., Horie, H., Kuboki, T., Suematsu, H., Sato, H., Yasushi, M., Kamei, T., & Masumura, S. (1997). EEG-driven photic stimulation effect on plasma cortisol and beta-endorphin. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 22 (3), 193-208 DOI: 10.1023/A:1026215910176
Litt, M. (1988). Self-efficacy and perceived control: Cognitive mediators of pain tolerance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54 (1), 149-160 DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.54.1.149
Megumi, F., Yamashita, A., Kawato, M., & Imamizu, H. (2015). Functional MRI neurofeedback training on connectivity between two regions induces long-lasting changes in intrinsic functional network Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00160
Nestoriuc, Y., Martin, A., Rief, W., & Andrasik, F. (2008). Biofeedback Treatment for Headache Disorders: A Comprehensive Efficacy Review Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 33 (3), 125-140 DOI: 10.1007/s10484-008-9060-3
Nestoriuc, Y., & Martin, A. (2007). Efficacy of biofeedback for migraine: A meta-analysis Pain, 128 (1), 111-127 DOI: 10.1016/j.pain.2006.09.007
Prinsloo, S., Gabel, S., Lyle, R., & Cohen, L. (2013). Neuromodulation of Cancer Pain Integrative Cancer Therapies, 13 (1), 30-37 DOI: 10.1177/1534735413477193
LOS ANGELES NEUROFEEDBACK CENTER TEAM
WEST LA OFFICE
12121 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 810
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Phone: (323) 705-3031
HOURS OF OPERATION
Monday – Friday: 7:00am – 7:00pm
Saturday: 8:30am – 7:00pm
Sunday: 9:00am – 6:30pm
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