A meta‐analysis of neurofeedback for treating anxiety‐spectrum disorders

Abstract

Despite the documented efficacy of neurofeedback (NFB) in the treatment of people with anxious symptomatology, many insurance companies identify NFB as experimental, which prohibits individuals from utilizing benefits to obtain this therapeutic treatment. In order to examine this discrepancy, the present meta‐analyses were conducted to examine the overall effectiveness of NFB, examine the impact of participant characteristics, and identify the extent of the differences in anxiety‐spectrum outcomes. Twenty‐six articles were divided based on design (12 single group (SG); 14 between‐group (BG)) and analyzed in separate meta‐analyses. Overall, results indicated that anxiety‐spectrum self‐report assessments were reduced by nearly one (SG SDM= −0.94; BG g = −0.87) standard deviation unit with relatively small degrees of bias. This study reports findings from the first exhaustive search of the literature, which included articles coming from a total of 17 databases/repositories. Applications of the findings are limited to Caucasian adults with symptoms of anxiety or PTSD.

A meta‐analysis of neurofeedback for treating substance use disorders

“…Accordingly, excluding articles that relied on qEEG as the dependent variable were consistent with previous meta‐analyses completed by Russo et al. (2022).…”

“…This is because EEG data are highly varied/dependent on the circumstantial factors, such as time of day, and a wide range of individual human experiences, which impedes efforts for standardization. Accordingly, excluding articles that relied on qEEG as the dependent variable were consistent with previous meta-analyses completed by Russo et al (2022).…”

“…The articles included in this meta-analysis were selected and analyzed via a systematic and replicable research process that sought to identify and synthesize studies in which the effectiveness of NFB treatment on SUD was quantitatively examined. The following sections detail the methodology used to conduct this meta-analysis, which was modeled after a meta-analysis completed by Russo et al (2022) that explored the efficacy of NFB in the reduction of anxiety-spectrum disorders.…”

“…The following sections detail the methodology used to conduct this meta‐analysis, which was modeled after a meta‐analysis completed by Russo et al. (2022) that explored the efficacy of NFB in the reduction of anxiety‐spectrum disorders.…”

“…To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to be peerreviewed and show utilization of NFB (independent variable) in the treatment of SUD (dependent variable). Dissertations and theses were considered, consistent with previous and recently published meta-analyses (see Balkin et al, 2021;Lenz & Hollenbaugh, 2015;Russo et al, 2022). The independent variable of NFB could not be combined with any other form of therapy.…”