The Dynamic Neural Retraining System, or DNRS, is a self-directed course that teaches people with chronic illness to interrupt what it describes as a stuck threat response in the brain, using a daily mental routine practiced for months. It is marketed for myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivity, fibromyalgia, and long COVID. The idea underneath it has a basis: in many of these conditions the nervous system amplifies pain, fatigue, and sensitivity, a process called central sensitization, and behavioral and psychological approaches help some people. What is thin is the evidence for DNRS in particular. No randomized controlled trial has tested the program.
The strongest published study of a similar brain-retraining course had no comparison group and was written by a paid consultant to it. The closest controlled evidence comes from related therapies in other settings: a small randomized trial of an amygdala-retraining program in fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, and a larger trial of a brain-based pain therapy in chronic back pain. Both point in a hopeful direction and neither tested DNRS. The course costs a few hundred dollars, the symptoms it addresses are physical illnesses, and the main concern is marketing that implies it can reverse organic disease, which no trial has shown.
Findings & Outcomes
What It Is
The Dynamic Neural Retraining System is a self-directed course, created by Annie Hopper and sold as an online video program with a workbook, for people with long-running chronic illness. It is marketed for myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivity, fibromyalgia, long COVID, mold illness, and food and chemical intolerances. The course runs around fourteen hours of instruction, followed by a daily practice the program asks people to keep up for at least six months. It costs a few hundred dollars for the online version, with optional in-person and coaching add-ons that cost more.
The teaching rests on one idea: that in these conditions the limbic system, the part of the brain that runs the stress and threat response, has become locked into a state of alarm, and that this alarm keeps the symptoms going. The daily practice trains the person to notice symptoms and stress responses as they start and to interrupt them with a set routine of movement, visualization, and rehearsed positive statements, repeated many times a day. The claim is that this repetition gradually rewires the brain out of the alarm state, through neuroplasticity, and that the symptoms settle as it does.
Anatomy of the Practice
1The course
The person watches the video instruction, around fourteen hours, and learns the model and the daily routine. The program frames the illness as a conditioned brain response rather than as ongoing damage in the body, and this reframing is a central part of the method.
2The daily practice
Several times a day, and whenever a symptom or a stressful thought begins, the person runs the routine: they stop, step through a short sequence of movements and visualizations, and rehearse calm, positive statements. The program asks for a firm commitment, often an hour or more a day spread across the day, kept up without long gaps.
3Over months
The program asks people to keep the practice going for at least six months and describes recovery as gradual and uneven. Improvement is reported by many who finish. Because the people who keep up a demanding daily practice for months are not the same as those who start it, and because fluctuating illnesses rise and fall on their own, that reported improvement cannot be read as proof the practice caused it.
What the Evidence Shows
Start with what is solid. In fibromyalgia and many long-running pain and fatigue conditions, the nervous system amplifies pain and other signals rather than simply reporting damage in the tissue, a mechanism called central sensitization. This is a physiological process, and it is part of why the symptoms are physical and not imagined. It is also the reason a brain-directed approach is worth studying at all: if the nervous system is amplifying the signal, an approach aimed at the nervous system could in principle turn the volume down.
The strongest controlled test of that principle used a different program in a different condition. In a randomized trial of 151 adults with chronic back pain, pain reprocessing therapy, which teaches people to reappraise pain as a non-dangerous brain signal, left 66% pain-free or nearly pain-free after four weeks, against 20% on an open-label placebo injection and 10% on usual care. This is not DNRS, and back pain is not the fatigue and sensitivity DNRS targets, so it stands as indirect support that a brain-based approach can reduce chronic primary pain.
Closer to DNRS, a single-blind randomized trial tested amygdala retraining, a related brain-retraining program, added to standard care in people with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. Those who received it reported better physical health, energy, pain, symptom distress, and fatigue than those on standard care alone. The result is fragile: of 44 people randomized, only 21 finished, and just 7 completed the retraining arm.
DNRS itself has not been tested this way. No randomized controlled trial has tested the Dynamic Neural Retraining System. The strongest published study of a comparable program, amygdala and insula retraining, reported that participants rated their health higher after three or more months across most conditions studied, but it had no control group, drew on self-reported data from a small self-selected sample, and was written by a paid consultant to the program. Most of the remaining support is testimonial and published by the programs themselves.
The Research & Studies
Everything here is based on the research we have collected and checked, sorted into groups and ordered with the strongest evidence first. Click any claim to open the studies behind it.
How it works
Chronic pain and related conditions involve nervous-system amplification (central sensitization)
In conditions like fibromyalgia, the nervous system turns up the volume on pain and other signals. The symptoms are physical, and this amplification is a recognized mechanism, not something people imagine.
In many chronic pain and functional conditions, including fibromyalgia, the central nervous system amplifies pain and other sensory signals rather than simply reporting ongoing tissue damage, a process termed central sensitization or nociplastic pain. It is a recognized mechanism and part of why the symptoms are physical. Measured in: Adults with chronic pain conditions, synthesized in a general medical review of chronic pain. Central sensitization explains part of these conditions and does not make them psychological or reversible by thought. It is a rationale for why a nervous-system approach might help, not evidence that any particular program does.
The study · 1
Cohen et al., chronic pain, an update on burden, best practices, and new advances · Lancet 2021;397(10289):2082-2097
Pain
A brain-based pain therapy left two-thirds of chronic back pain patients pain-free, versus a fifth on placebo
In one trial, a brain-based therapy that reframes pain as a false alarm left two-thirds of chronic back pain patients pain-free, against a fifth given a placebo. This is a different program from DNRS, tested in a different condition.
In a randomized trial of 151 adults with chronic back pain, pain reprocessing therapy, which teaches patients to reappraise pain as a non-dangerous brain signal, left 66% (33 of 50) pain-free or nearly pain-free at four weeks, versus 20% (10 of 51) on an open-label placebo injection and 10% (5 of 50) on usual care. Mean pain fell to 1.18 of 10 with the therapy, versus 2.84 on placebo and 3.13 on usual care, and the gains held at one year. Measured in: 151 adults with primary chronic back pain, 54% female, mean age 41, in a university research setting. This tested pain reprocessing therapy, not DNRS, and in chronic back pain rather than the fatigue and sensitivity conditions DNRS targets. It is indirect support that a brain-based approach can reduce chronic primary pain, not a test of DNRS. Single trial, self-selected community sample motivated to try a psychological treatment.
The study · 1
Ashar et al., effect of pain reprocessing therapy vs placebo and usual care for patients with chronic back pain, a randomized clinical trial · JAMA Psychiatry 2022;79(1):13-23
Energy And Fatigue
A small randomized trial of a related brain-retraining program improved fibromyalgia and chronic-fatigue symptoms, but few finished
A small trial of a brain-retraining program, added to standard care, improved self-reported energy, pain, and fatigue in people with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. Only 7 people finished the retraining arm, so the result is fragile.
In a single-blind randomized trial, amygdala retraining (an existing brain-retraining program) added to a 1.5-day multidisciplinary course improved self-reported physical health, energy, pain, symptom distress, and fatigue compared with standard care alone in fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. Of 44 people randomized, 21 completed the study, with 7 in the retraining arm. Measured in: 44 patients with fibromyalgia and/or chronic fatigue randomized (21 completed), median age 48, 91% women, in a tertiary-care clinic. Very high dropout, with only 7 of 22 completing the retraining arm, plus self-reported outcomes and an unblinded intervention, make this a preliminary signal. It tested amygdala retraining, a related program, not DNRS.
The study · 1
Toussaint et al., a mind-body technique for symptoms related to fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue · Explore (NY) 2012;8(2):92-98
Evidence And Methods
The published support for programs like DNRS is uncontrolled and self-reported; no trial has tested DNRS itself
The best study of a similar brain-retraining course found people said they felt better afterward, but there was no comparison group, the data were self-reported, and the author was paid by the program. No controlled trial has tested DNRS itself.
The strongest published study of a comparable brain-retraining program (amygdala and insula retraining, the Gupta Program) found participants rated their health and functioning higher after three or more months across 14 of 16 chronic conditions. It had no control group, used self-reported data from a small self-selected sample, and was authored by a paid consultant to the program. No randomized controlled trial has tested the Dynamic Neural Retraining System itself. Measured in: Self-selected users of a brain-retraining program reporting on their own health across multiple chronic conditions, cross-sectional survey. What could explain it instead: With no control group, the reported gains cannot be separated from the natural rise and fall of fluctuating illness (regression to the mean), the expectation set by a program people chose and paid for, and the greater tendency of those who improved to complete a follow-up survey. The author's financial tie to the program is a further source of bias.. A before-and-after survey of people who chose and paid for a program cannot show the program caused the change. It reflects what proponents cite, and no controlled trial has tested DNRS.
The study · 1
Bratty, neuroplasticity intervention, amygdala and insula retraining (AIR), significantly improves overall health and functioning across various chronic conditions · Integr Med (Encinitas) 2023;22(6):20-28
How It Works
The model DNRS teaches has two parts that stand up on their own and a third that does not yet.
The first is central sensitization. In fibromyalgia and related conditions the spinal cord and brain amplify incoming signals, so ordinary input can register as pain, and the threshold for fatigue, nausea, and sensitivity drops. This is measured and physical.
The second is conditioned response. The body learns associations: a smell, a food, or a place that once coincided with feeling ill can, on its own, start to trigger the symptoms, the same kind of learning that underlies many anxiety responses. A practice that works on those learned associations is a reasonable thing to try.
The third part is the leap. DNRS goes from those mechanisms to the claim that a rehearsed daily mental routine can retrain the limbic system out of the illness, and that people can recover from conditions like myalgic encephalomyelitis and multiple chemical sensitivity this way. That step has not been shown in a trial. Naming central sensitization and conditioned responses explains why an approach like this might help. It does not establish that this specific program does, and it does not make these illnesses psychological. A person can have a sensitized nervous system and an organic disease at the same time.
The mechanisms DNRS names are real. The claim that consciously interrupting thoughts and symptoms reverses these illnesses is a separate claim, and no controlled trial has tested it.
How to Try It
Ways to Do It
The ideas underneath DNRS, calming a sensitized nervous system, working with conditioned responses, and pacing activity, can be practiced for nothing, and that is the fair first step for most people. The paid course packages them into a structured program with a fixed routine. If you are considering it, treat it as one option among several and keep it alongside medical care, not in place of it.
A daily calming practice such as meditation or slow breathing, gentle pacing that stays under the level that triggers a crash, and noticing the situations that set off symptoms without forcing yourself through them. These are the parts of the model with the most support behind them, and they cost nothing. For someone with post-exertional malaise, pacing rather than pushing is the safe form.
Books on chronic pain, central sensitization, and pain science, and low-cost meditation or nervous-system apps, cover much of the same ground the courses teach. This is the cheapest way to test whether a nervous-system approach helps you before paying for a full program.
DNRS and comparable programs such as the Gupta Program sell a set curriculum, a fixed daily routine, and coaching. The cost is a few hundred dollars and up, plus months of daily practice. What you are buying is structure and support, not a treatment shown to work in a trial.
Whatever the source, the thing that any of these approaches asks for is a calming, pacing practice held steadily over months. Two ways to arrive there sit at opposite ends of cost and effort.
Assemble your own: a daily meditation or breathing practice, careful pacing, and a clinician who is working up and treating the underlying illness. Free, and it takes more self-direction to build and sustain.
Buy a structured course for the curriculum and the coaching. Easier to follow because someone else built the routine. Costs money the free route does not, and carries no trial showing it outperforms the free route.
Go Deeper
- Anxiety: the conditioned threat response DNRS works with is the same machinery behind anxiety, where behavioral treatment has a much larger evidence base.
- Meditation: the calming, attention-training practice at the core of most brain-retraining routines, free and studied in its own right.
The Chinese Medicine View
Chinese medicine reads long-running fatigue and sensitivity through patterns rather than a single cause. Exhaustion out of proportion to effort, poor digestion, and heaviness point to Spleen Qi deficiency, the failure to turn food into usable Qi. A deeper depletion, with cold, low reserves, and a long course, points to Kidney deficiency and the draining of Essence. The tension, irritability, and symptoms that come and go with stress belong to Liver Qi stagnation. Disturbed sleep and a mind that will not settle are read as the Shen, the spirit housed by the Heart, being unsettled.
Because the tradition treats mind and body as one system, a daily practice that calms the Shen and eases Liver Qi stagnation sits easily within it, and calming practices have long been part of TCM. The tradition would not read that as retraining a brain out of an illness. It would treat the deficiency underneath. Someone worn down and depleted is tonified and rested, not asked to push past their symptoms, and the classical caution 勞則氣耗, exertion consumes Qi, argues for pacing rather than effort in someone whose reserves are low.
Two cautions follow from reading it this way, and a Five Branches practitioner would raise them:
- A mind-calming practice does not replace treating the constitutional deficiency, and on its own it can leave the root untouched.
- The tradition does not read the body's signals as errors to be overridden. Nausea from a chemical, or a crash after exertion, is information about a person's state, and the pattern behind it still needs care.
If you work with a practitioner, the pattern is worth asking about, because the treatment depends on it and differs from person to person.
Cautions For This Practice
Extra restraintEverything to be aware of is here, in one place. This practice suits most healthy people; a few situations call for real care.
Keep medical care going; this does not replace a diagnosis
Myalgic encephalomyelitis, multiple chemical sensitivity, fibromyalgia, and long COVID are physical illnesses, and they can occur alongside conditions that need to be found and treated. A brain-retraining course is not a substitute for a medical workup. Do not stop a treatment, drop an investigation, or leave a new or changing symptom unexamined because a program frames the illness as a brain response.
Be wary of marketing that promises recovery or blames setbacks on you
No trial has shown that DNRS reverses these conditions. A program that guarantees recovery, or that treats a relapse as a sign you did the practice wrong, puts the failure on the patient and can add guilt to an already hard illness. Improvement in the testimonials cannot be separated from the natural ups and downs of these conditions and from the expectation set by a program people chose and paid for.
In ME/CFS, do not push through symptoms
Post-exertional malaise, a worsening after even small exertion, is a defining feature of myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome, and pushing through it can cause lasting setbacks. DNRS is not graded exercise, but any encouragement to override fatigue or to increase activity on a schedule should be treated with care. Pace to stay under the level that triggers a crash.
Weigh the cost against what is known
The course costs a few hundred dollars and asks for months of daily practice. For an individual, whether it helps is not settled by any trial. If money is tight, the free calming and pacing practices cover the best-supported parts of the method at no cost.
Start slow, be smart, read the research, and consult a professional if you have any concerns. This is here to inform your choice, not make it for you.
Common Questions
Does DNRS work?
No randomized controlled trial has tested the Dynamic Neural Retraining System, so there is no controlled answer for the program itself. Related brain-retraining approaches show early, fragile signals: a small trial of amygdala retraining improved self-reported symptoms in fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, and a larger trial of a brain-based pain therapy reduced chronic back pain. Many people who finish DNRS report improvement, but that comes from uncontrolled reports, and fluctuating illnesses improve on their own in ways an uncontrolled report cannot separate out.
Does this mean my symptoms are imaginary?
No. The symptoms are physical. Central sensitization, where the nervous system amplifies pain and other signals, is a measured mechanism, and conditions like fibromyalgia and long COVID are physical illnesses. The gap here is in the evidence for this particular product, not in the reality of the illness. A brain-directed approach being studied does not mean the problem is in your imagination.
Is it safe to try?
The practice itself, calming routines and mental rehearsal, carries little physical risk for most people. The concerns are around it. Do not let a course replace medical care or a diagnosis. Be cautious with any framing that promises recovery or blames a setback on you. And in myalgic encephalomyelitis, avoid anything that pushes you to work through fatigue, because that can cause a lasting crash.
Are there cheaper things that overlap with it?
Yes. The best-supported parts of the model can be practiced for nothing: a daily meditation or breathing practice to calm a sensitized nervous system, careful pacing that keeps you under the level that triggers symptoms, and attention to the situations that set symptoms off. Books on pain science and low-cost apps cover much of what the courses teach, and working with a clinician on the underlying illness sits alongside all of it.
Explore Related
Other pages this one connects to, by the evidence they share, the outcomes they touch, and the ground they cover.
All 4 sources on this page independently checked and cross-referenced.
Thomas Dehli, Founder & Editor, Sacred Lotus
Sacred Lotus has published Chinese medicine reference material since 2001. Integrative pages are held to the same standard as the herb and formula library: cite the source, grade the claim at its real strength, and say where the research has not looked. This page is educational and it is not medical advice. Last reviewed and updated August 10, 2026.
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