NIJMEGEN, The Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A personalized treatment approach, tailoring Neurofeedback treatment to the individual ADHD patient, almost doubled the effectiveness for attentional and hyperactivity/impulsivity problems. These results have just been published in the scientific journal ‘Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback’. This study is the first scientific study investigating whether personalizing Neurofeedback treatment, based on a so-called quantitative EEG or QEEG, results in a higher effectiveness of this treatment in ADHD.
Several scientific studies have already demonstrated that neurofeedback treatment has beneficial and lasting effects in the treatment of ADHD (Arns et al, 2009). A new development in psychiatry is that of 'tailor-made treatments' sometimes referred to as ‘personalized medicine’. This development is becoming more and more popular due to the fact that most ‘conventional’ treatments in psychiatry have demonstrated limited efficacy. The development of personalized medicine therefore focuses more on providing the right treatment for the right person in order to achieve a more effective treatment outcome. In a study conducted by Research Institute Brainclinics, neurofeedback protocols were tailored to the individual patient. On the basis of patients’ individual brain activity measured by quantitative EEG – also called a QEEG - it was determined which well-investigated neurofeedback protocol was applied to a specific patient. Sixty-seven percent of patients responded well to this treatment (more than 50% reduction in symptoms). The reported "effect-size" of 1.8 (a measure of the magnitude and clinical relevance of the treatment effect) in this study was found to be almost double the effect-size as compared to previously reported studies. These results were published today in the international scientific journal Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (Arns et al, 2012).
For more information also see http://www.brainclinics.com/news
References:
Arns, M., Drinkenburg, W. H. I. M., & Kenemans, J. L. (2012). The effects of QEEG-informed neurofeedback in ADHD: An open label pilot study. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. doi:10.1007/s10484-012-9191-4
This article is also available at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/h5084x3642824r88/fulltext.pdf
Arns, M., de Ridder, S., Strehl, U., Breteler, M., & Coenen, A. (2009). Efficacy of neurofeedback treatment in ADHD: The effects on inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity: A meta-analysis. Clinical EEG and Neuroscience, 40(3), 180-9.