Health Psychology Research / HPR / Volume 10 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.52965/​001c.35644
GENERAL

Managing anxiety disorders with the neuro-biofeedback method of  Brain Boy Universal Professional 

Eleftheria Zafeiri1 Vasileios Dedes1 Kostantinos Tzirogiannis1 Agapi Kandylaki2 Maria Polikandrioti3 Dimitris Panidis1 Georgios I. Panoutsopoulos4*
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1 Department of Nursing, University of Peloponnese
2 Department of Social Work, Democritus University of Thrace
3 Department of Nursing, University of West Attica
4 Department of Nutritional Science and Dietetics, University of Peloponnese
Submitted: 31 October 2021 | Accepted: 4 April 2022 | Published: 27 May 2022
© 2022 by the Author(s). Licensee Health Psychology Research, USA. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

Background

Biofeedback is a non-invasive therapeutic method used independently or as an adjunct alongside other methods.

Objective

This study evaluated the efficacy of biofeedback in the treatment of anxiety disorders.

Methods

The sample consisted of 85 individuals with anxiety symptoms who underwent neuro-biofeedback therapy using Brain Boy Universal Professional. Anxiety was assessed by both the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAM-A) and Zung Anxiety Self-Assessment Scale (SAS) before the initiation and after completing ten sessions with biofeedback.

Results

Before biofeedback and based on the HAM-A scale, 27.0% of the individuals showed mild to moderate anxiety, 16.5% medium anxiety, and 56.5% severe anxiety. After the completion of biofeedback, 90.6% of the individuals experienced mild to moderate anxiety, 5.9% medium anxiety, and 3.5% severe anxiety. Based on the SAS scale, before biofeedback, 42.4% of the individuals showed minimal to moderate anxiety, 21.2% marked severe anxiety and 36.5% most extreme anxiety. After the biofeedback, 68.2% of the individuals were within a normal range, 27.1% had minimal to moderate anxiety, 4.7% marked severe anxiety, and none in most extreme anxiety.

Conclusion

Both HAMA-A and SAS scales showed statistically reduced anxiety levels after biofeedback therapy. Thus, the primary symptom of anxiety can be addressed by the biofeedback method.

Keywords
anxiety
anxiety disorders
biofeedback
neuro-biofeedback
stress
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Conflict of interest
There are no competing interests to report.
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Health Psychology Research, Electronic ISSN: 2420-8124 Published by Health Psychology Research