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Depression & Mood Disorders - Quick Facts

  • Depression is globally on the rise in children, adolescents, youth, adults, and elders.
  • Pharmaceutical solutions / sales have increased tenfold.
  • Pharmaceuticals are still the ‘go to’ ignoring environmental and social contributions.

Like anxiety, depression & mood disorders are globally on the rise. Some instances are purely circumstantial e.g., increased loneliness, isolation, loss of connection, and larger meaning. But some are true chemical imbalances. Chicken and egg one might say.

To date, ‘solutions’ have largely been pharmaceutical with lesser interest and value placed on non-chemical and social intervention(s). Fortunately, times are starting to change, and the fields of medicine, psychiatry, and psychology are increasingly becoming aware of the role of functional biology and our ability to train it; embracing non-pharmaceutical modalities.

Our specific assessment method (Swingle ClinicalQ) can provide insight into ‘cause’ and contribution to mood dysregulation. Blue moods that run in families (genetic pre-disposition), situational mood destabilizers (e.g., family strife / pending divorce, etc.) and situational ‘depression’ (e.g., significant loss such as death of a parent, child, or spouse) all have distinct markers on the brain. As too does a now very common form of depression that is a combination of both under and over arousal; a specialty of Dr Mari Swingle which she refers to as agitated depression.

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Depression and Mood Disorders

For depression and mood disorders, please book a 5 point ClinicalQ assessment.

About the Condition

Depressive disorders are a group of well-recognized conditions, which are included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – 5th Edition – Text Revision (2023). While most people feel in low mood from time to time, others experience severe feelings of sadness, anger, or numbing, that doesn’t shift even with life circumstances being stable.

Recommended Neurofeedback Treatment

There are several types of depressive disorder that improve with Neurofeedback treatment. When low mood is related to emotional trauma or ongoing anxiety, it will typically resolve once these conditions are successfully treated, through alpha and theta frequency band training at the rear of the brain. Other people may be experiencing emotional dysregulation or low mood as a result of an imbalance of beta frequencies (18-25hz) at the right frontal lobe. Rapid improvement can be experienced after a course of Neurofeedback, particularly in combination with a home harmonic treatment to assist with frontal lobe balancing.

Additional Recommended Psychological Services

When depression is related to emotional trauma, sometimes complementary counselling, or psychotherapy such as EMDR can help to resolve the underlying emotional issues. Often, people with depression benefit greatly from lifestyle changes, such as increased exercise and sunlight exposure.

Antidepressant medication is often prescribed, and is managed by the prescribing physician. Your clinician can consult with your physician to ensure the timing of any medication reduction is appropriate, given your progress in therapy. You will need to sign a release of information form to give your consent for your clinician to consult with your physician.

Recommended Reading

Biofeedback for the Brain

Further reading...

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Baehr, E., Rosenfeld, J. P., & Baehr, R. (1997). The clinical use of an alpha asymmetry protocol in the neurofeedback treatment of depression: Two case studies. Journal of Neurotherapy, 2(3), 10–23.

Baehr, E., Rosenfeld, J. P., & Baehr, R. (2001). Clinical use of an alpha asymmetry neurofeedback protocol in the treatment of mood disorders: Follow-up study one to five years post therapy. Journal of Neurotherapy, 4(4), 11–18.

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Grin-Yatsenko, V. A., Othmer, S, Ponomarev, V. A., Evdokimov, S. A., Konoplev, Y. Y., Kroptov, J. D. (2018) Infra-Low Frequency Neurofeedback in Depression: Three case studies. NeuroRegulation 5(1), 30-42.

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Iseger, T. A., van Bueren, N. E. R., Kenemans, J. L., Gevirtz, R., & Arns, M. (2020). A frontal-vagal network theory for Major Depressive Disorder: Implications for optimizing neuromodulation techniques. Brain Stimulation, 13(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2019.10.006

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Swingle Clinic

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