ABSTRACT
Background. Neurofeedback holds promise as an intervention for the psychophysiological dysfunction found in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Few empirical studies have assessed the efficacy of neurofeedback for PTSD, and none in individuals with refugee trauma. A proposed mechanism for neurofeedback efficacy in PTSD is through remediating deficits in cognitive control. We assessed pre- and postchanges in symptoms and neurocognitive functioning of refugee clients participating in a neurofeedback intervention for PTSD. Methods. Clinical data for 13 adult refugees with chronic PTSD who participated in neurofeedback combined with trauma counseling (NFT) was compared with 13 adult refugees placed on a waitlist to receive neurofeedback. Waitlist clients continued to receive trauma counseling alone (TC). NFT was additionally assessed pre- and posttherapy for changes in event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral indices of cognitive control using a visual continuous performance task (VCPT). Comparison VCPT data from healthy controls (HC) was available from the Human Brain Index database. Results. Posttherapy, NFT had significantly lower symptoms of trauma, anxiety, and depression compared with TC. NFT demonstrated an increased P3 amplitude and improved behavioral performance suggesting a normalization of cognitive control. Conclusions. These preliminary observations are consistent with a possible benefit of neurofeedback for remediating PTSD. This may be achieved at least partially by an improvement in cognitive control. Further confirmation of the effectiveness of the treatment now requires a randomized controlled trial that considers issues such as placebo response, nonspecific therapist effects, and duration of treatment.
Subject(s)
Depression/psychology , Neurofeedback , Refugees/psychology , Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/psychology , Anxiety/psychology , Brain/physiopathology , Electroencephalography/methods , Evoked Potentials/physiology , Female , Humans , Male , Neurofeedback/methods , Psychotherapy/methods , Quality of Life/psychology , Self ReportABSTRACT
Eighty-six children (ages 9-14) with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) participated in this study. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in auditory GO/NOGO task before and after 15-22 sessions of EEG biofeedback. Each session consisted of 20 min of enhancing the ratio of the EEG power in 15-18 Hz band to the EEG power in the rest of spectrum, and 7-10 min of enhancing of the ratio of the EEG power in 12-15 Hz to the EEG power in the rest of spectrum with C3-Fz electrodes' placements for the first protocol and C4-Pz for the second protocol. On the basis of quality of performance during training sessions, the patients were divided into two groups: good performers and bad performers. ERPs of good performers to GO and NOGO cues gained positive components evoked within 180-420 ms latency. At the same time, no statistically significant differences between pre- and post-training ERPs were observed for bad performers. The ERP differences between post- and pretreatment conditions for good performers were distributed over frontal-central areas and appear to reflect an activation of frontal cortical areas associated with beta training.