Video Games: Solution for ADD?

Sacramento, CA (KXTV) - A drug-free alternative treatment for attention deficit disorder is giving parents new hope, and it's as simple as playing a video game.

According to reports, nearly 1.6 million elementary school age children in the U.S. have attention-deficit disorder, or ADD.

It can prevent them from sitting still, learning in school and prompt them to act out physically. For most afflicted kids, drugs and psychotherapy have been the usual prescriptions for the disorder.

But the process of neurofeedback, which is the training of brain waves, a procedure often used to treat migraine headaches, is now being widely used to treat ADD.

Bay Area neuropsychologist Dr. Mark Steinberg has been using neurofeedback for more than a decade to treat ADD in both children and adults.

Patients are connected to special video games through a neurofeedback computer, which sorts out different brain waves dictating behavior and how the brain refocuses itself.

"The person steers the video game with his brain, the same way you know to tell your hands to steer a car on the freeway," said Steinberg.

Cody Tscharner, 11, was taking the drug Ritalin to help his ADD, until he and his mom met Steinberg.

"It's teaching my brain to calm down, to be good," Cody said.

Cody is now down to one Ritalin pill a day -- and his mother is thrilled.

"Were taking it day by day, but I think we've found something that's working," said Lori Tscharner.

Steinberg's method is being used across the U.S. and boasts a 80 to 90 percent success rate.