Amygdala and Insula Retraining Program

The Amygdala and Insula Retraining (AIR) Program is an unproven behavioral therapy that claims to teach people how to "retrain" two specific parts of their brain.

Evidence
A clinical trial in Finland has been announced for Amygdala and Insula Retraining for:
 * Bodily stress syndromes (BSS), the new name for medically unexplained physical symptoms, which are categorized as pyschological, the trial claims includes fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), multiple chemical sensitivity, and "other, both single system and multiorgan functional disorders"
 * Chronic fatigue syndrome
 * Post Covid-19 condition

Clinicians
A trial of AIR training is planned at the Network for Functional Disorders at Helsinki University Hospitals.

Risks and safety
Unknown. The trial and ideas behind Amydala and Insula Retraining have been criticized by public health professor David Tuller, who pointed out a number of key flaws and the lack of evidence behind the theory proposed.

Learn more

 * Trial By Error: More on the Dutch CBT Long Covid Trial; Finnish Study of "Amygdala Retraining" Program - David Tuller