An invisible misery can signal the onset of a
brain-based mental disorder. Lacking a way to
identify the individual neurobiology of these
disorders, medical doctors and psychiatrists
have sorted symptoms and behaviors as the
primary means of selecting medication. Other
doctors may presume a psychological impair-
ment and not consider an underlying neuro-
pathology. The result can lead to psychotherapy
without an adequate clinical assessment.

I practiced traditional psychiatry for nearly a
decade and was disappointed in my treatment
outcomes. Beginning an EEG & QEEG research
project in 1986, I gradually learned how to recognize and analyze EEG patterns and QEEG measures and how they change with medications that pass the blood-brain barrier.

Applying the medical rule to “sort physiology first”, I developed a clinical procedure on Axis III to improve a patient’s distressful symptoms that I had labeled on Axis I. In this procedure, a prospective patient’s EEG data is compared with a large, clinical outcome database of heterogeneous EEG’s and their diverse medication responses. The prospective patient’s EEG data is then mathematically classified and correlated with neuro-active medication(s) likely to improve their particular brain function.

Applying this approach in treating thousands of patients over the last two decades, my understanding about mental disorders has changed.

I now realize that healthy persons are merely genetically fortunate. They can enjoy predictable physical and mental wellbeing without much effort. Yet, those with chronic mental disorders and/or substance abuse do not have that physiological capacity. They are physically ill with conditions for which we have no names, but an increasing understanding of how to personalize a health restoring medicinal regimen.

My experience with applying individual EEG data in clinical practice has convinced me that persons with a brain-based mental disorder are trying to find relief from their abnormal neurobiology. They find ways to help themselves through persistent substance abuse, bingeing, purging, restricting food, obsessions, compulsions, self-mutilation, inward or outward aggression and/or violence, etc. Such behaviors change physiology and give transitory relief. Although the behaviors appear maladaptive, they are attempts at adaptation.

When a behavior such as these partially relieves the pathophysiology associated with a mental disorder, a behavior is reinforced and becomes habitual. The goal of my medical treatment is to provide a more effective and safe medical regimen for these patients than they previously devised.

My neuro-psychiatric approach collects, sorts and integrates physical findings with physiological facts about each person’s bodily systems and interactions. The comprehensive scope of a patient centered medical inquiry increases knowledge of individual brain activity and brain-body interface.

Now, medical doctors can be trained in new Axis III skills that I have learned over the years. They can also learn to follow this EEG & QEEG pattern recognition technique. Knowledge-based treatment improves medical outcomes and reduces the stigma of undesirable habits.