title: Self-regulation of slow cortical potentials in psychiatric patients: alcohol dependency.
abstract: Ten unmediated alcohol-dependent male inpatients participated in a Slow Cortical Potential (SCP) self-regulation task utilizing biofeedback and instrumental conditioning. These patients were hospitalized for treatment of alcohol dependency after chronic abuse of alcoholic beverages. Somatic withdrawal symptomatology had occurred recently and the patients were free of any withdrawal symptoms of the autonomic nervous system. Immediately after hospitalization patients were unable to control their SCPs without the reinforcement of immediate feedback across 4 sessions. Seven patients participated in a fifth session an average of 4 months later. Six out of these 7 patients had not had a relapse at the follow-up. In the fifth session these patients were immediately able to differentiate between the required negativity and negativity suppression, whereas the seventh patient, who had relapsed, was unable to control his brain potentials successfully. Results are further evidence that some of the frontocortical dysfunctions in alcohol-dependent patients are reversible. This could covary with a morphological restitution of the cortex.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Elbert
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Heimann
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Welker
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Stetter
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mattes
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Birbaumer
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001676:Biofeedback, Psychology; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged