American Psychiatric Association Meeting

At their  May 2009 meeting in San Francisco, the APA sponsored a 6-hour CME course called EEG Neurofeedback Neurofeedback in Psychiatry.  It been given sponsored by American Psychiatric Association at their annual international meeting since 2003.  It is designed to help psychiatrists understand neurofeedback.   The course has continued to be renewed by the American Pschiatric Association.  It has been very well received. 

Psychiatrists who attend - most who know little about neurofeedback before attending - often remark at how good the course is and how surprised they are by the power of neurofeedback to help their patients.   A number of cases are presented along with a detailed review of the research literature. 

The next course will be offered in New Orleans in May 2010.  Any psychiatrists interested in learning more about neurofeedback and it's implications to their patients can contact the course organizers to get more details about the course.   The chair of the course is Dr. Tom Brod, a psychiatrist in private practice and an associate professor at UCLA.  The co-chair is Michael Cohen, Director of Training at the Center for Brain Trianing. 

The course included a review of the research, clinical applications, an explanation of the underlying mechanisms and a demonstration of how it works.  

Over the years, a number of presenters have participated in the course. In 2009, the presenters included Dr. Glenn Marks, a neuropsychologist from Tucson, Dr. Gary Schummer; a child Psyhologist from Torrance, CA; Len Ochs, Ph.D. of Ochs Labs;  Beverly Rubik, Ph.D., from Northern California, and Julian Issacs, Ph.D., from Marin County, CA. 

All the presenters are volunteers are not paid by the APA.  As a result, every year new health professionals are invited who are close to the location of the APA meeting.  Each clinician - - most whom are in private practice, pay all their own expenses.  They volunteer to share with their fellow professionals their interest in this emerging new modality.  

Some of the presenters from previous courses include:  Dr. Steve Buie, a psychiatrist in Asheville, NC;  Dr. Sam Roura, a psychiatrist in Miami, who are pictured below.   They also include:  Dr. Tom Brod, a psychiatrist from UCLA, ;  Dr. David Mitnick, a child psychiatrist from New Jersey;  Dr. Angelo Bolea, a neuropsychologist from Maryland;  Dr. Larry Hirshberg, Ph.D. from Providence, RI, and Roger DeBeus, Ph.D.   Dr. Michael O'Bannon, Atlanta, GA.