Can we train our brains to react in new ways?
People go to therapists for Behavior Modification; money is paid for drugs to heal depression and addictions, but can technology help scientists heal those who want to heal themselves?
The notion that our brains are not running at full speed simply doesn't hold up. "Numerous types of brain imaging studies show that no area of the brain is completely silent or inactive. Detailed probing of the brain has failed to identify the 'nonfunctioning' 90 percent," Carroll and Rachel Vreeman, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine, write in the British Medical Journal study. Carroll says the notion may go as far back as the snake-oil salesmen of the early 20th century, who used the myth to sell a tonic that would increase brainpower. http://www.newsweek.com/id/82138?gt1=10645
What if there was a way adults with specific attachment problems could get patient-specific therapies programmed after their own brain-function tests, (and not get treated through a DSM-IV book), wouldn't long-term healing be more likely since there would be objective proof monitoring the progress of therapy development?
Can the person who feels no emotion, learn to love, and can functional brain imaging help doctors help these people learn how to manage their feelings and language better, so words and feelings can relate new meanings to them so a higher sense of personal value can be experienced?
Comments
taylor-made solutions
I like the idea of tailor made therapy you present. Far too often I see one-size-fits-all solutions, especially since the proliferation of psychofarmaca and the canonization of mental illnesses through the DSM series. On top of that poor insurance coverage pushes towards quick solutions, all leading to pigeon holing people into coarse grained categories and prescription of drugs aimed at an as large as possible clientele.
Effectiveness of mental health care the way it is done now is immeasurable. The percentage of people who benefitted from therapy is hardly known and the harm done as a result of therapy is one of the really big unknowns.
As such neural imaging technology could very much make both the effectiveness of therapety more measurable and will force therapists to focus more on the individual than on text book models.