Syntonic Phototherapy post stroke

[hckyplyr]

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I have a family member who had a stroke a few months back, he has visual/spatial problems, with anosognosia. It was a right sided ischemic stroke, I believe in the area of parietal/occipital lobes. Regardless, thats not the point. His physical therapist recommended an optometrist who does syntonic phototherapy. He only takes cash, and charged $350 initial consult, and $900 for the treatment. I just found this out, he hasn't gone for the treatment yet. I've been searching online all day, and cannot find one piece of research about syntonic phototherapy, especially in his case of stroke. I found one article, written both by optometrists. Needless to say, I'm pissed. They are charging large fees, cash only, and getting his hopes up.
Have any of you heard of/currently use this syntonic therapy, or possibly can share some of your thoughts/opinions. I figured I would run this by you all first, since you would know best. I'm very close to calling his office on Monday and going off on this guy. Thank you for helping.

 

[neglect]

I have a family member who had a stroke a few months back, he has visual/spatial problems, with anosognosia. It was a right sided ischemic stroke, I believe in the area of parietal/occipital lobes. Regardless, thats not the point. His physical therapist recommended an optometrist who does syntonic phototherapy. He only takes cash, and charged $350 initial consult, and $900 for the treatment. I just found this out, he hasn't gone for the treatment yet. I've been searching online all day, and cannot find one piece of research about syntonic phototherapy, especially in his case of stroke. I found one article, written both by optometrists. Needless to say, I'm pissed. They are charging large fees, cash only, and getting his hopes up.
Have any of you heard of/currently use this syntonic therapy, or possibly can share some of your thoughts/opinions. I figured I would run this by you all first, since you would know best. I'm very close to calling his office on Monday and going off on this guy. Thank you for helping.

I sometimes think the lowest form of life is a quack who would take advantage of an ill and desperate patient, sell them snake oil in place of actual medicine (then I read the paper). The shame of it is that some of the quacks convince themselves of the merits, which is perhaps a more interesting form of anosognosia.

But it takes two to tango. This is transparently bunk. It does not take a neurologist to tell you that light therapy will not help a stroke (or, since I’ve never heard of this particular snake oil, to say that there is no data to support its use - perhaps the NIH will fund it?!), even if it is dressed up in the language of synthonics. It reminds me of another conversation I had on these forums with @GH253 who wants to do away with the FDA, so all the wise doctors and smart and expert patients can use whatever compounds they see fit. Hey, GH, see any problems with that yet? Of course not. But the rest of you might see that market forces don’t work perfectly in desperate medical situations.

Personally, if this were happening to my family member, I’d take notes, screen shots, and report all involved to their boards and credentialing agencies. I would be particularly interested why a PT is recommending something so outside his scope as to be measured in light years. And if my family had spent a dime, I’d call Saul Goodman.