Ok, I’m a little scared and embarrassed. I’ve been going through this for a few years now and have had ups and downs with my treatment. My struggle now is paranoia, I’m scared of everything which could possibly cause a flare up, my biggest one is eating anything harder than soup…has anyone else been done this route and has it helped? Thank you x
Yes, I have been to three psychiatrists as required before MVD and PNS surgery. I talked only fifteen minutes about my pain after handing them my written pain history and was signed off quickly for surgery each time. The funniest psychiatrist story though, was when I tried Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) under a medical doctor who is a psychiatrist and the name on the office door and his web site is TMS Psychiatry. While I went for one hour treatments during five days a week for eight weeks, he gave me questionnaires each day to complete prior to treatment. The titles on the forms were Beckman Anxiety Questionnaire, Beckman Depression Questionnaire and VAS Pain Scale and Questionnaire. We had an hour meeting or session every Thursday to ensure we both agreed on what was happening during the treatment on progress for pain relief. By the third week he quit providing the anxiety and depression questionnaires because he stated that He believed my pain caused anxiety and de3pression and not the reverse. That was a serious morale booster. I was impressed that there are many psychiatrists who are M.D.'s who have spent serious years in study of the brain physiology and which parts of the brain correspond to sensory and motor paths to each part of the body. We started my treatment with homunculus diagrams for him to describe where he was placing the magnets above the part of my brain corresponding to my left face pain. After no reduction in pain he performed detailed EEG (called Quantized EEG) that was processed into frequency spectral maps of my brain showing specific frequency intensities by location from a MRI brain map. The MRI with fiducial or reference markers was made at UCLA on a 3T (3 Tesla scanner which completes the scan in 10 minutes as opposed to the 45 minutes in the old 1.5T scanners at most hospitals). There are a number of doctors doing research on the frequency power spectral brain maps from EEG just as there are many MD researchers doing the same with fMRI. And, there are some doing both (e.g., the TN Pilot Study at University of Florida by Dr, Andy Ahn which was advertised in the TN Quarterly journal in 2012). Unfortunately, the pilot study was not approved for funding. It turns out that there are normative databases of EEG brain maps for the average population and for people with a variety of diseases such as Migraine, Tinnitus (ringing in the ear)Parkinson's Disease, Altzheimer's disease, Essential Tremor, Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, etc. TN has been too rare or too under-reported for funding of these simple non-invasive measurements which many doctors believe would be an objective diagnosis means to confirm TN like these tests do for other more common diseases. There are National Institutes of Health funded clinical trials that indicate the viability of these low cost EEG measurements but not enough have been done to convince the NIH and and the health insurance companies. So, I mention it here because psychiatrists seem to be taking the lead on physical measurements to diagnose pain in the United States. Here are some references on EEG measuring pain:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18060808
High thalamocortical theta coherence in patients with neurogenic pain
http://thejns.org/doi/full/10.3171/2011.10.FOCUS11246
Measurement of targeting accuracy in focused ultrasound functional neurosurgery
For general info look at service providers like:
http://www.edmontonneurotherapy.com/Edmonton_Neurotherapy_QEEG_brain_mapping.html
QEEG Brain Mapping
http://www.brainsinternational.com/default/assets/File/SampleReport1.pdf
BSI sample report
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15999899
EEG databases in research and clinical practice: current status and future directions.
Use of Databases in QEEG Evaluation
http://www.brainm.com/software/pubs/brain/Johnstone%20Gunkelman%20Databases%20QEEG.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20722346
Quantitative EEG abnormalities in fibromyalgia patients
EEG-correlated fMRI of alpha waves NI 2003.pdf
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10548-■■■■■■■■-6
Three dimensional Localization of Abnormal EEG Activity in Migraine
http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:17532138
What do the numbers mean? Normative data in chronic pain measures.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15999903
Use of normative databases and statistical methods in demonstrating clinical utility of QEEG: importance and cautions
http://qeegsupport.com/eeg-findings-in-traumatic-brain-injury/
EEG Findings in Traumatic Brain Injury
QQuantitative+EEG+with+LORETA+measures+neurogenic+pain
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3303776/
Pain Ratings and Psychological Functioning and Quantitative EEG in a Controlled Study of Chronic Back Pain Patients
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16183660
Increased EEG power and slowed dominant frequency in patients with neurogenic pain
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16527493
Persistent EEG overactivation in the cortical pain matrix of neurogenic pain patients.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21948245
CCorrelations between EEG and clinical outcome in chronic neuropathic pain surgical effects and treatment resistance
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3097432/
Evaluation of Quantitative EEG by Classification and Regression Trees to Characterize Responders to Antidepressant and Placebo Treatment
http://udini.proquest.com/view/neural-dysfunctions-as-a-result-of-pqid:2500824861/
Neural dysfunctions as a result of mild traumatic brain injury EEG study
PMID: 20334674 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] PMCID: PMC2858736
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2858736/
Temporo insular enhancement of EEG low and high frequencies in patients with chronic tinnitus. QEEG study of chronic tinnitus patients
System and method for pain detection and computation of a pain quantification index
I asked the TN Pilot Study administrative assistant if commercial QEEG brain maps could be submitted rather than travel to Florida for the one day QEEG brain map and MRI measurements because there are EEG service providers all over the country to perform this non-invasive measurement and provide a test report of the results for less than $1000 but received no reply. Just a few of these service providers are:
http://tallahasseeneurobalancecenter.com/OurServices/BrainMapping.aspx
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Tallahasee Neurobalance http://tallahasseeneurobalancecenter.com/OurServices/BrainMapping.aspx http://www.santabarbarabrainfitness.com/services/brainmapping/ Brain Mapping http://www.ndbraintherapy.com/contact-us Intensive Outpatient Program
http://www.q-metrx.com/index.html
http://alanfisherphd.com/qeeg.htm Quantitative Electroencephalography in South Texas http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/associates.html Arizona Center for EEG in Scottsdale
If your have EEG data done and need to provide a report for a study, pilot project or clinical trial there are many report services such as: http://www.novatecheeg.com/report-service.html QEEG and LORETA and Neurofeedback Reports http://brainsinternational.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=25
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