Finding the Best Medication for You

Selecting medications for psychiatric disorders is typically a hit-or-miss process.

Over the years I’ve seen many patients come in who have tried one medication or combination of medications after another over months or even years with little success.

Unlike many other diseases, psychiatric disorders such as depression are vague collections of symptoms. And there are no objective medical tests to reveal their presence nor clearly defined physical signs of their resolution. This leaves many psychiatrists with only a trial-and-error approach to selecting medication.

If only there was a test to help psychiatrists predict more accurately which drug is likely to help their patients. The good news: THERE IS!

The referenced electroencephalogram, or rEEG, is a revolutionary test that helps guide medication selection. An EEG records the brain’s electrical activity. A patient’s brainwave patterns are then “referenced,” or compared, to a database of more than 20,000 medication trials. This information guides the physician in selecting medications that are more likely to work for you.

The EEG is painless, harmless, and noninvasive. The procedure involves placing about 20 small patches, or electrodes, on the scalp. A machine then records the brain’s electrical activity for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Then, the patient’s EEG is entered into a database where it is matched with other similar brainwave patterns. The database produces a readout of medications which have helped patients with similar brainwave patterns.

Although the rEEG helps more accurately select medications, the rEEG can NOT diagnose particular illnesses; particular brainwave patterns do not correspond with specific diagnoses. The rEEG only indicates which drugs are likely to help a particular patient.

This revolutionary, yet simple, brain test enables psychiatrists to improve the traditional trial-and-error approach to medication selection.