Schizophrenia and the efficacy of qEEG-guided neurofeedback treatment: A clinical case series

Treating Thought Disorders

“…approach (usually with antipsychotic medications) may not be beneficial for a particular patient population, and more personalized treatments may be needed. 211 The idea of "personalized" treatment is consistent with subclusters of dysregulation indicated by qEEG analyses, but qEEG is not yet widely used. 1 Neurofeedback protocols derived from qEEG analyses enable a tailoring of treatment protocols to specific brain regions and their functional status in a more individualized manner than can currently be provided by medications.…”

“…The clinical studies with schizophrenia performed by Bolea 213 and Sürmeli et al, 211 and studies done with OCD, 224 are limited in that they are not controlled or blinded. However, recent comparisons between randomized controlled studies and randomized observational studies have shown that there is no great difference in treatment effects between the two, and that observational studies do provide relevant treatment information.…”

“…The positive findings using rTMS in schizophrenia, [208][209][210] where statistically significant decreases in AHs have been reported when the left temporoparietal cortex and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were stimulated, have raised the possibility that neurofeedback, which is a safer way to modulate brain activity, could be an alternative treatment option for schizophrenia. 211 The effect of neurofeedback treatment for sleep problems in chronic schizophrenia patients has been shown in a controlled multiple case study only. 212 However, although neurofeedback has been extensively studied in the treatment of many disorders, there have been few published uncontrolled case reports on its clinical effects in the treatment of schizophrenia.…”

“…212 However, although neurofeedback has been extensively studied in the treatment of many disorders, there have been few published uncontrolled case reports on its clinical effects in the treatment of schizophrenia. 211,213 In the paper by Sürmeli et al 211 a group of 51 schizophrenic patients were treated with neurofeedback. In this study subjects with a PANSS total score of 70 or above were included (range: 76-156; between 70 and 79: two subjects; 80-89: nine subjects; 90-99: eight subjects; 100-109: five subjects; 110-119: nine subjects; 120-129: five subjects; 130-139: five subjects; and >140: five subjects).…”

Defining Developing Evidence-Based Medicine Databases Proving Treatment Efficacy

“…Therefore, the objective response should be included in the design of any future studies hoping to improve the ranking of neurofeedback in EBM. Since the introduction of qEEG, many authors 16,[24][25][26][27][28] have used the brain maps generated by this testing modality to show that neurofeedback induced an improvement in a dysregulated region of the brain. An improvement in a dysregulated area of the cortex can be even better seen on LORETA.…”