A neurofeedback protocol to improve mild anxiety and sleep quality

Gomes, July Silveira; Ducos, Daniella Valverde; Akiba, Henrique Teruo; Silva, Rui F.

doi:10.1590/1516-4446-2015-1811

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 5 publications

(4 reference statements)

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“…The second assumption supported by concurrent fMRI-EEG studies (e.g., [97]) was that beta brainwaves reflect activity of brain areas and alpha oscillations are present mostly in idle regions [93]. Imbalance of frontal cortices' activity in depression may be to some extent caused by the structural abnormalities of the left frontal pole [8] and, from a genetic perspective, by polymorphism of 5-HTTLPR coding serotonin transporter [98]. Albeit a large number of studies replicated the link between rightsided prefrontal dominance and depression, a recent metaanalysis demonstrated no such an effect [99].…”

Section: Frontal Alpha Asymmetrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some researchers modified the protocol, e.g., by additions such as beta-3 band downregulation to improve anxiety symptoms [91,98] or central beta-1 upregulation [98] to strengthen motivation and executive functions or by shifting focus to left beta upregulation [110] with additional photic stimulation [106]. Hammond [93] in a review summarized their own study based on [106] protocol and showed that unmedicated subjectively depressed adults improved on the MMPI depression score posttreatment.…”

Section: Frontal Alpha Asymmetrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hammond [93] in a review summarized their own study based on [106] protocol and showed that unmedicated subjectively depressed adults improved on the MMPI depression score posttreatment. A few studies [91,98,111] utilized slow/fast brainwave balance within one lateralized lead instead of left-right balance within a frequency band. Protocol by Dias and van Deusen [91] has anecdotal support from a single case.…”

Section: Frontal Alpha Asymmetrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Protocol by Dias and van Deusen [91] has anecdotal support from a single case. Twenty sessions of neurofeedback aimed at increasing beta-1 power at C4 with eyes open and alpha/beta 3 ratio at P4 led to increase in alpha and beta-1 powers with simultaneous decrease in beta-2 power and improvement on depression, anxiety, and quality of sleep [98]. Below we discuss existing studies of frontal alpha asymmetry neurofeedback and few trials of other protocols based on emotional frontal EEG asymmetry concept.…”

Section: Frontal Alpha Asymmetrymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Current Evidence Levels for Biofeedback and Neurofeedback Interventions in Treating Depression: A Narrative Review

Mel’nikov¹

2021

Neural Plasticity

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This article is aimed at showing the current level of evidence for the usage of biofeedback and neurofeedback to treat depression along with a detailed review of the studies in the field and a discussion of rationale for utilizing each protocol. La Vaque et al. criteria endorsed by the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback and International Society for Neuroregulation & Research were accepted as a means of study evaluation. Heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback was found to be moderately supportable as a treatment of MDD while outcome measure was a subjective questionnaire like Beck Depression Inventory (level 3/5, “probably efficacious”). Electroencephalographic (EEG) neurofeedback protocols, namely, alpha-theta, alpha, and sensorimotor rhythm upregulation, all qualify for level 2/5, “possibly efficacious.” Frontal alpha asymmetry protocol also received limited evidence of effect in depression (level 2/5, “possibly efficacious”). Finally, the two most influential real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI) neurofeedback protocols targeting the amygdala and the frontal cortices both demonstrate some effectiveness, though lack replications (level 2/5, “possibly efficacious”). Thus, neurofeedback specifically targeting depression is moderately supported by existing studies (all fit level 2/5, “possibly efficacious”). The greatest complication preventing certain protocols from reaching higher evidence levels is a relatively high number of uncontrolled studies and an absence of accurate replications arising from the heterogeneity in protocol details, course lengths, measures of improvement, control conditions, and sample characteristics.

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Section: Frontal Alpha Asymmetrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Frontal Alpha Asymmetrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Frontal Alpha Asymmetrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Frontal Alpha Asymmetrymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Current Evidence Levels for Biofeedback and Neurofeedback Interventions in Treating Depression: A Narrative Review

Mel’nikov¹

2021

Neural Plasticity

View full text Add to dashboard Buy / Rent full text

show abstract

“…Brambilla et al found that white‐matter connectivity is impaired in the right parietal lobe in patients with GAD (Brambilla et al., 2012). July et al use neurofeedback protocol to improve a female patient’s mild anxiety and sleep quality, and found alpha changes from the pretreatment baseline were particularly prominent at P4 (Gomes et al., 2016). These findings suggested that right parietal lobe might play an important role in the pathophysiological mechanisms of GAD.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%