Introduction: Anxiety disorders affect approximately 40 million Americans ages 18 and over (NIMH, 2015). Although qualitative and small-scale quantitative neurofeedback (NF) studies show reduction in anxiety symptoms, large-scale studies and quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) driven protocols are non-existent. This retrospective pilot study intended to assess whether qEEG guided amplitude NF is viable in symptom reduction of anxiety. Methods: Nineteen clients were assessed for anxiety, 14 were included in the data. Demographics include age ranges from 11-61 (M = 31.71, SD = 16.33), 9 male and 5 female; six identified as Caucasian, five as Hispanic/Latino, and three Caucasian/Hispanic ethnicity. Pre-and post-assessments included the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED), and the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA). Clients received 30-min qEEG guided NF treatment sessions, twice a week. The range of attended session was 7-28 (M = 12.93, SD = 6.32). Results: Enhancement in clients' well-being was evidenced by statistically significant improvement in symptom measures scores. Although improvements for the two most anxiety-related categories on the ASEBA were not significant, other anxiety-related categories did show significant improvement. Yet, qEEG findings were not statistically significant. Directions for future research are discussed.
In this retrospective study, researchers examined effects of quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG), individualized neurofeedback treatment protocols for anxiety. The present study includes 52 clients with 53.8% (n = 28) self-reporting as male and included two time points (pre and post). Secondary analyses utilized a subset of client data (n = 21) with measurements from three time points (pre, post, and follow-up). All clients completed qEEG and self-report assessments. Clients agreed to attend a minimum of 15 biweekly sessions, for one academic semester. Findings from regression analyses revealed three predictors of posttreatment outcomes. In addition, analysis of a subsample of data assessed at three time points revealed statistically significant improvement from pre to post and sustained outcomes from post to follow-up. We discuss limitations and implications for future research.
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