Alpha-theta brainwave training and beta-endorphin levels in alcoholics.

Peniston, Eugene G., and Kulkosky, Paul J.
Veterans Administration Medical Center, Fort Lyon, Colorado 81038, and
University of Southern Colorado, Pueblo, CO 81001.
An alpha-theta brainwave biofeedback training program was applied as a novel treatment
technique for chronic alcoholics. Following a temperature biofeedback pretraining phase,
experimental subjects completed 15 30-min sessions of alpha-theta biofeedback training.
Compared to a nonalcoholic control group and a traditionally treated alcoholic control
group, alcoholics receiving brainwave training (BWT) showed significant increases in
percentages of EEG record in alpha and theta rhythms, and increased alpha rhythm
amplitudes. Alcoholics receiving BWT showed a gradual increase in alpha and theta brain
rhythms across the 15 experimental sessions. These experimentally
treated alcoholics
showed sharp reductions in self-assessed depression (Beck's Depression Inventory) compared
to the control groups. Alcoholics receiving standard medical treatment (abstinence, group
psychotherapy, antidepressants) showed a significant elevation in serum beta-endorphin
levels at the conclusion of the experiment. This neuropeptide is an index of stress and a
stimulant of caloric (e.g., ethanol) intake. Application of brainwave treatment, a
relaxation therapy, appears to counteract the increase in circulating beta-endorphin
levels seen in the control group of alcoholics. 13-month follow-up data indicate sustained
prevention of relapse in alcoholics that completed alpha-theta brainwave training.
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