Longitudinal Outcomes of Neurofeedback and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in Treating a Traumatic Brain Injury Patient: A Case Report.

ABSTRACT

Severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a significant health issue, with neurofeedback and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) as potentially effective treatments. Neurofeedback uses operant conditioning for real-time psychological and physiological awareness, and HBOT increases blood oxygen levels, potentially enhancing cognitive abilities and the body's innate healing processes and reducing symptoms. On July 30, 2018, a 33-year-old female runner was hit by a car going 40 mph and thrown 30 feet, resulting in a severe TBI and a seven-week coma. After seven months of intensive rehabilitation, she started HBOT and neurofeedback treatments in November 2021, as recommended by her neuropsychiatrist. These treatments led to noticeable improvements in her cognition, sleep, conversation skills, emotional control, and relationships by January 2022. By December 2023, after 195 neurofeedback and over 300 HBOT sessions, she reported further improvements in various cognitive and emotional aspects and daily activities like feeding, toileting, grooming, and communication. Post-treatment quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) results in June 2024 showed moderate to large effects on her brain's average frequency band parameters (g = .612) and small to moderate average effects on 19 scalp electrode placement sites outcomes (uV2 g=.339 and Hz g=.333). This indicates significant progress in her recovery journey over a 31-month treatment period. This patient's case demonstrated noteworthy improvements in cognitive variables, namely, feeding (p=0.046), toileting (p=0.046), grooming (p=0.046), and communication abilities (p=0.046) per the objective measures, Disability Rating Scale (DRS) and the Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended (GOSE). Based on the qEEG effect sizes, DRS, and GOSE results from the pretest (2021) and posttest (2024), the patient has made noteworthy gains in brain recovery and overall quality of life.