Neuro-Electric Therapy
Neuro-Electric Therapy is a new method for easing the withdrawal from heroin or other opiates. The addict is required to apply electrodes behind the ear, which are then electrically stimulated daily for six to ten days using a control pack which the addict carries with them.
The electrical currents are said to stimulate nerve pathways (much like acupuncture), thus reducing any cravings for opiates and lessening the painful withdrawal symptoms. However the researchers are keen to point out that this treatment is not an alternative to counselling or rehabilitation, merely an effective method for dealing with the physicalities.
A trial of neuro electric therapy in Scotland has produced very promising results. This is expected to lead to much bigger trials of the treatment in the near future.
Not sure how I’d feel about walking around with cables trailing around my head, and hopefully there’s fuses in place to prevent short circuits and a quick dose of ECT! Still, if it helps make the cluck a bit easier then sign me up.
This is a revolutionary new treatment which could save the lifes of thousands of drug addicts! Although still at its early stages of development, the treatment seems to be having hugly possitive effects. The truth seems to be that the only reason why the NHS will not accept this , is due to loss of profits gained from the replacement drugs they currently offer to addicts in rehab. If only they could look beyond money and do what is morally correct for once!!
its not actually that new it was designed over 5r0 years ago by a scottish inventor and i believe its been held back due to the large amounts of money involved in the pharmaceutical industry.
First of all – hear hear Smith, well said.
My 21 year old son has been a heroin addict for 3 years, in and out of prison due to the shop-lifting and such to fund his habit. I have tried to find help for him to help kick this habit but here in the North of Scotland our options are very limited. We have tried it all, He has been on a D.T.O. (Drug Treatment Order) taking methadone and other drugs, I have taken weeks off work on several occasions to try and help him through the worst first weeks when he’s rattling and to try and keep him away from the people who so readily supply him with heroin, all to no avail. On numerous occasions myself, my partner and my other kids have to sit and watch him gouching. I have gone through months on end wondering when that knock on the door was going to come, telling us he was dead. Right now he’s at home with us, on his third day off heroin and almost getting back to his old self but we’ve been here before and the cynic (or realist) in me is saying – “For how long this time?” Show me where to sign him up for trials of this and I’ll be first in the queue.
Should be interesting to see how it works with alcohol addiction, sounds safer than the Ibogaine way..
I would like to try this method to see if it works for me – i might even get my life back because right now i feel like a prisoner stuck in methadone land and its not a nice place to be. so how do i go about getting this NET?
How do I go about offering myself for trials, I would desperately like to try this out.
Please, anyone with info on how to do this can you post info on this site so that I may follow it up, as David says, this is not a nice place to be! Thanks
my understanding of the net trials in scotland is it has had very limited success with addicts back repeatedly for further treatment. My friend approached these people to help her rid herself of a metadone addiction problem first visit looked good was told this is going to happen for you,second visit it was all changed she was told the owners of the net patent were having talks with the private rehabs and this charity had no money to fund her treatment. her friend who was on the trial told of a rehab/charity that has a net device she asked to referred to them heard nothing phoned rehab/charity said they would put her on their list heard that before. did the owners this net/tens? device exploit the maxi richards foundation rehab/charity, the third step charity,and the addicts for commercial gain.bbc footage was heavily edited none of the bad stuff was shown ie no sleep for weeks and heavy tripping
I don’t believe the Pattersons exploited anyone. I read that they funded the research themselves. A very expensive venture and probably even mortgaged their homes, in an effort to keep it all going while they waited for government or NHS support that was a very long time comming. However, I read there is finally real hope see Net Device Corp website: http://www.netdevice.net/
I am a psychologist, studying for a Ph D in addiction research. My email address jokkpatrick@yahoo.co.uk
Could any one shed any light on who is conducting these trials?? also does anyone know of any private practices that offer this sort of treatment??
mail bodgeup@googlemail.com
This is the problem nobody is doing trials of it because most trials are funded by drug companies. It was tested in 1985 by NHS funded researchers but there was no consultation with the original inventors Meg Patterson and Karl Schmidt who although he was a consultant psychiatrist, came from outside established addiction research. They found it to be ‘no more effective than methadone, and it was tossed aside as just another half-baked ‘alternative’ therapy. But in those days nobody not even its inventors knew how or why it worked or exactly what endorphins were or what opioid receptors do. With modern imaging studies we can see the brain respond to drugs or stress. We can even watch video footage of neurons growing dendritic spines and boutons growing new synapses through the stimulation of learning. No attempt appears to have been made since then to find out why the results were different. The therapy has been and still is working on private patients with a 95% success rate and only 1.7 relapse rate since 1981 [compared to the reverse with methadone]. The only clinics where it is available are Karl Schmidt’s in Yeovil Somerset and Patterson’s in Glasgow. Write to your MPs, the Health Minister and to Mike Trace the ex-drug Tsar ask them why the government has not funded more research into NET treatments, which used properly can heal every addiction from tobacco to sex, not just heroin.
I am desperately trying to find out how i can do this trial, it seems after searching no one knows which is very annoying. Please Please let me know how i can as i cant handle this life for much longer. This should be widely known to the people who need it – if it does work not only would it save lives but would hugely reduce the costs of treatment. Like i say i’d love to try it.
A friend’s son has been under treatment for heroin addiction a number of times. We live in South Africa. Is there anybody in South Africa that could give us more information on NET? Or do you have a contact number so that we can ask his father (parents are divorced) who is residing in the UK to obtain some information for us?
Replies can be sent to : tandoz@webmail.co.za
Joe Winston has set up NET studies in the USA and there is also one in South Africa but I am not sure which city Cape Town or Johanesburg. You could try putting George Patterson and NET into Google
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/have-scientists-finally-discovered-the-answer-to-addiction-440193.html
http://www.netdevice.net/aboutdetox.php
You can contact one clinic through its consultant Professor Karl Schmidt at his Somerset address on this website. I am sure he will also be happy to send you his book. Healing Addiction Without Drugs (or cold turkey)
http://clinmed.netprints.org/cgi/content/full/2000110003v1
I would be very interested to know if there is any way i would be able to try this net treatment as i have been on methodone a long time and had many relapses and i heard about the success rate from this n.e.t treatment and would appreciate it if you could tell me is it possible to go anywhere to get it done.
does anyone know where you can go to get this treatment even if its private treament somehere , I am from Glasgow and want to know how i go about being able to try this treatment , if you know where it can be done please contact me at , eddiebhoy2005@hotmail.co.uk
Iv tried finding out about NET for 6 months now and nobody seems to be able to help. It seems a much better option than using another drug like methadone. If anyone can give me any information i would be extremely grateful.midimagee@hotmail.com
hey people, you can buy a device designed by one of the
original researchers in the field: Dr. Robert C. Beck.
search for bt-6 or brain tuner to learn more. alternativly,
the one company beck worked close with is Sotainstruments. -find them and you’ll have all you need
to apply this therapy *now* and by yourself..
(also, to learn about Dr. Becks other research, search
on “Beck Protocol” -there are a few of his video lectures
on google vids. -i have used his blood cleaner device with extremely good results)
good luck,
-soundwash
im 25yrs old – ive been taken heroin for 7yrs now, ive been on methadone for 2/3 yrs. i lost my mum to cancer, i was 12 yrs old – my dad had nothing to do with me so my gran and papa took on the parenting thats my mums side, then 3yrs ago my dad died. so i was staying with my gran but she passed away on 1st may 2007 she was my 2nd mum. i want to come off everything please can you help me as i would like to try NET i would even be a guinnie pig. yours sincerly LINDSAY ROWLAND
I wonder how your doing now
I have been on gear for over ten years now, I’ve tried the electro therapy they have in our local drug service place with mixed results although this is not exactly the same as NET it is supposed to help withdrawal symptoms, I have also tried tens machines in various places around my body – back, neck, arms / legs etc with no luck. They really need to radically overhaul the ‘war on drugs’ strategy and start handing out heroin to addicts so we can wean ourselves off safely and in our own time. This method had had spectacularly successful results in Switzerland and crime rates plummetted accordingly. They need to take the drugs out of the hands of the dealers..
what u just said will not help any1 i think u need to think what u really want an do it how everlong it takes.
I would like info on the NET drug trails in respect to amphetamines, as this makes perfect sense to me. We would really like to be able to get my partener(as would he) on this trial as it’s the lack of his own bodies chemical balances that sends him into a deep depression after the phyiscal withdraw. so something that speeds ups the process in producing and regulating the natural chemical balances has got to help in solving the problem of getting clean and staying clean after the physical withdraw.
I successfully used NET in 1980 when it was being pioneered by Dr. Meg Patterson (who treated Eric Clapton and Keith Richards). She had a treatment centre called Pharmakon. At the time it was in Broadhurst Manor in Sussex and was in combination with group and occupational therapy.
BACKGROUND
I had a two-year old opiate habit and had been injecting a synthetic opiate called Palfium (Dextromoramide – no longer prescribed in the UK since 2003). Toward the end of the two years I was injecting myself about 50 times a day and the last two weeks before receiving NET I was injecting every 30 minutes – I was a dab-hand with the needle! (Palfium has a very short half-life and my tolerance was immense).
NET helped me! It reduced the withdrawal symptoms significantly (it was hard for her to find the right setting as palfium was an unknown opiate to her and I’m sure had I been mainly on Heroin which was familiar to her my withdrawals would have been reduced even more). Due to the very short half-life the cold-turkey with Palfium was savage and I believe NET possibly saved my life as I’m not sure I would have endured that pain without it! Although it IS posssible to do it!
After a few days I felt a LOT better. NET also increases recovery time.
Meg Patterson (who, sadly died, a few years ago) wrote some books on her research and I am cited (anonymously) in the book.
If you’ve tried and failed to get off your drug of choice, try and get NET.
Good luck and blessings to all of you who suffer with addiction.
Ive used net and it really helped me!! there right its not magic you really need to want to stay clean, or net will get u off drugs/drink and if ur not prepared to stay clean or realize you dont want to, well like many people ull be back to square 1. i recommend going into a residental rehab to sort ur head out.
I am a practitioner whom works with Electro-Stimulation therapy, working on a much similar basis to that of Megs system. I work in a Drug & Alcohol agency that does not offer substitute medication and this treatment is extremely popular and is effective, not only in substance withdrawel but also in other symptoms that accompany substance use ie. anxiety, paranoia, sleep issues & depression.
If you google Biophysical Solutions, they supply equipment, training and information/advise. Or check with your local Drug & Alcohol agency as this treatment method is on the increase!
i wiz in maxis home and seen it work for myself gary scott fi fife
Neuro Electric Therapy (curing addiction without drugs) and the crucial follow up rehabilitation free from drugs of any kind were conducted at Yeovil NHS Hospital by Professor Karl Schmidt and Dr Meg Paterson as early as 1981 with a 90% success rate with a substantial number of people.
There is no need for lengthy trials and delays in implementing Karl Schmidt’s proven methods. However, this has to be a State organised A to Z response to treating many forms of addiction, diet deficiencies and disorders, which must be dealt with under highly competent medical supervision.
This will require sensitive community policing, compulsory medical supervision and rehabilitation in environments where individuals can enter a new enlightened world of self help encouragement, supervised work groups and training, and full time work in practical and rural skills. For example Work Groups for Wildlife.
The advantages of a bold approach are in securing the demise of the spiral of drug crime, removing at least 236 methadone drug deaths recorded in the last year in England, a massive cut in the £39 billion annual cost of drug and alcahol abuse to society, and above all providing a much better life for at least 1 million people in England, who are currently not in work or education in what is unfortunately a hostile envirionment forced upon them by Government failures.
Preventative medcine using the lastest neurotherapy technology has the potential of reducing National Health Service costs by up to 50%.
For further details contact Edmund Marriage – Patrick Foundation Golden Age Project – patrickfound@btinternet.com
just been through a detox using the NET and have to say i’m pretty amazed. been addicted to heroin for 16 years and this is the only thing that has worked. was through my rattle in 4 days or so (which seemed about the average for the guys that were in) you still need to want it (although it does take away the cravings 100%)
good luck to anyone trying to beat the smak. just keep on tryin, something will work eventually if you want it.
if i can give anyone info that they think they could use. googlebop@yahoo.com
If you could make it look like a I-Pod then no-one would know the difference
The NET treatment is available in our Rehabilitation Centre, based near Kirkcudbright in the South West of Scotland.
Contact the Lochbank Trust on 01557 870016 or see our website at
http://www.lochbanktrust.org.uk.
For further information on NET, please visit their website at http://www.netdevice.net
Hi Owen, very qiuckly here! My head is full of nothing, what the fehhuck is it meant to be feeling??. Had a pretty crap call with Peter trying to get me back intouch with Eilidh, and he was not happy..Well it could be worse!…He could be a recovering addict! Talks about resentent??/. Has to turn over alot more pages of that whittepaper to fill that annoyance! Anyway Owen…Feels like i’ve lost out more than surf board board….I’ve lost someone special.
Please, please, please….any more examples of success with this? Does it work?
I am currently working on finding out, so far results are very promising but I do believe more experimental work needs to be done by way of testing and brain imaging. This treatment is capable of making permanent changes to the brain and therefore needs very careful exploration. If findings are mixed then addiction research needs to know why; for example what is it that some are people doing right and what are others failing to do.
I fear it may be some time before this treatment can be declared safe and effective long term but I am sure that the problems could be ironed out. If anyone is interested in taking part in medical trials when my initial investigations are completed please contact me at the email address above.
I should add that drugs are also capable of making permanent and very damaging changes to the brain. Whatever risks may be discovered from this treatment they will probably turn out to be quite minimal by comparison to drug based methods. This treatment will also be cheaper in the long or short term, which has been one of the main drawbacks to obtaining funding for trials or research. Nobody is going to benefit financially from this treatment except for the addicts involved, the makers of the machines and whoever supplies batteries to keep them running.
Hi there all you interested folk, i’ve read some of the stories, and ofcourse they’re all sad. The good news is i’ve comleted the NET Box round about 5 weeks ago.Was on it for 7 days,took it off,fealt very uephoric, so back on for one more day,and then 4 days later a clean sweep across my drug screen-Neg for Heroin/Methadone/Benzodiazepines/and Weed would you believe! Worked for me, and even though on the outside i cut myself down from 40mls of meth to 20, it still fealt a little uncomfortable, i mean able to sit, but no concentraton. Myself and a Girl called Jack were there for one week ourselves, and we passed like ships in the night, except during the day.Sleep is the worst as we all know, but after the week ourslves, other fo k came, some stayed, some got frights, mainly by Jack and her stories, mind you she was on the box for 21 days,and she was 51 and at ‘it’ for 30 years,Heroin/Benzo’s like Valium/Temazepam,you name it she was taking something each day.My sleeping is getting better. I was in Ronachan House, where 50 volunteers were wanted, but unforunitly the powers at be are closing the place on 03/12/10,shame, because if i could enclose a pic i would. Place was huge mansion with own private beach, i applied for an extra week because i thought 3 was just not enough, because since leaving the institutionalised atmosphere, and everything done for you, attending groups on just about everything. I can give you Bruce’s Number, and it should be an answer machine, but leave your details and he’ll get back. I know that i was client number 22, and as i said a few came for a couple of days and left. The tobacco thing with the box i believe is just a trial, but only in Germany, i know that as a staff member at Ronachan asked to pay good money for the treatment at her work, and was turned down.Bruces NO is 07787 746 337. On the way down the page looking for this part i noticed a name i know well. Owen Fielding…He is one of the co-ordinators for the device. Yes it was found by the Dr’s in Aberdeenshire,but being used in same sort of way for years, Eric Clapton and Pete Townsend both used it, and Clapton raved about it. I do too by the way. Shame what the person said about the NHS not happy, this is true, because the funding for the treatment i got was from a mystery person who put up $3,000,000 for 150 weeks,rather than 3 weeks per client. The box itself is pretty light,about size of old walkman,but about an inch thick,the cords are long enough to well reach your pockets,and as for the pads behind your ear,well they shave a ltttle arch behind top of ear,on your head ofcourse,set the box by computer for substance you’re coming off,so tell the truth!! Then they attach the pads with sticky elastoplast, and bobs your uncle. Just tuck it under your pillow at night and you won’t get tangled up, i never once did. You click it on, slowly as you’re nervous. I put mine halfway, that’s about 8am-12pm if you think of watch face, i could feel slight tingling. I turned it up full which on the clock face that’s about 5pm, then it was uncomfortable, but after a wee while i could put it right up full. To be honest mine was halfway most of the time, and i mean about 5% of me up full just to see if it was still working. Anyway the folk who are doing the trial in Scotland are now doing it somewhere in Inverness, as Ronachan has stopped taking in anyone new now. Rainbow House in Glasgow are using the box too, but i’m not sure of any where else, as it was just lucky i met a girl who gave me Bruce Thompsons Number. He’s a good guy. I will say just one thing on the withdrawals part, mine came in waves. 20mls may not seem alot, but believe me if i’d done that cold turkey here at home i’d have been out the door. Where Ronachan is is the most perfect place i’ve been rehab wise. I’ve been in 1 twice, a second one twice,Phoenix House,and one in Derby.Done around about 10 different ways to get off my meth, and the box was it. Plus with no medication! The sucsess rate is pretty high aswel i think, maybe as high as between 75-90% much better than just being tied to a chemist 6 days a week, for 20mls. I know i’ve rabbled on here a little, but if anyone has any questions that you think i may know the answer to, or tell you more what it was like for me, then reply here or to pauljglancy@hotmail.com I’m Glaswegian, but i don’t mind who wants to know more, as there may be centres down in England for all i know. The company that did all the stuff on the box and got all that funding are called http://www.netdevice.net and i’ve not even looked there yet, as i don’t feel i need to. I was on methadone on and off for around 11 years,on it,off it, then my last timescale was 40mls for 3 and a half years before over 4 months i slowly reduced, and by luck as i said got that phone number. So if it can work for me who’ll be 45 on 25th it could and should work for you. I’ve fealt in seeing different folk at different levels of habits struggle, but half didn’t tell the staff how much, and of what they were taking, so their box’s were set wrong, and they suffered till the staff noticed how bad they looked. See if you go with the attitude that its last chance, as funding is hard to get in Scotland/Glasgow now, and just look at the folk that have done it, then it makes you think “well another 3 days and that’ll be me”. I used to feel sorry for the residents on say day 2, yawning and sneezing to bolting out the door to the loo. Up to your bed, back 10 mins later, but its what the box does, it just brings your rattle on faster, gets it over and done by. So it is very worth it people. Plus don’t worry bout job ctr being on your case once you get out, as one person on the site wrote that it could be doing anything with your brain,as i feel a little bit empty of who i used to be. Methadone is like petrol to a car, so without it, well it’s impossible to drive right, well my motivation is taking its time too. The box is designed to unblock the receptors in your brain that give you your natural high, but years of suppresing them with drugs that bring them out rapidly,like coke/smack/benzo’s, well your brain cannot produce this seratonin and dopamine anymore, but it was flooding out of me that night with the uephoria i was experiencing…I fealt as if i was coming up on an acid tab from years ago. I just fealt very excited and anxious, but Owen took me aside and told me the score all about the receptors all now becoming unblocked. Back to the job ctr and then i’m off to bed. Right i’m sure if you’re on the sick, and then come out of some rehab centre that there’s a ‘clause 27 or 25′ that means that because you’ve come out clean, a total different person, and suddenly you’re thrown into work, and earning a wage (if you last that long) that that wage you’ve just earned could send you back to “euphoric recall” is rehab talk for it, but it’s money in your hands, you’ve earned it. So we addicts like a wee pat on the back..How many times have you said to yourself “awe a wee quick wan’ll no dae any hearm”? I’ve od’d 5 times clean saying that to myself. Time for me to wake up and smell the Coffee for sure. I hope i’ve enlightened any questions folk had, and not bored any cynics to death with all that, so as i said…Feel free to reply here, or to mail me. I’d be best to mail, as i don’t have anything under my faves. Atleast if you mail me you’ll get a reply to yourself and it’s more personal. To the Mother that said her son had been an addict for was it 3 years? Get him fast, he won’t want to listen as you’ve no-doubt done it 1,000 times, but get him to start cutting down slowly, off whatever it is, Methadone i think you said, but try. I know the trial in Scotland was from what i saw, was people all different ages and all coming off either Methadone and smack/Smack/and smack and Benzo’s,
Promise me this, and only if you are willing to give up the time to get somewhere to get onto the box that you’ll talk to your drug worker/Dr anyone who has a little bit of pull funding wise, then i wish you all the very best, just stick it out. Bruce is based in Glasgow,but if there are places left, then say Paul Glancy recommended it as i was one of the sucsesses out of the 22 so far. I’m just wanting to help pass on for free the number for Bruce that i got for free, and since 6th of October i’ve not touched any Opiate drugs. That to me says something. I want the boys Mother to call bruce. Get your Sons life back before that knock comes eh? I have no children, but when i hear a Mothers plea it sets something going with me…So if you read this, get intouch abd we’l chat okay? I’ll reply to your message that what..
Thanks for reading and hope i’ve helped. Opiates are horrible.
Best of Luck Folks…..All My Hope…Paul.x.
going to rainbow house today to be put on the “BOX” very apprehensive.
P.S. i’ll let everyone Know how i get on. Bruce thompsons a great guy he got me into rainbow after ronachan closed down. They are continuing the trials at a place in inverness i think its Beechwood house.