Does EEG Neurofeedback Training Reduce Anxiety Symptoms in Anxious People?

Researchers at the University of Hartford are trying to find out if training people’s brain waves with EEG neurofeedback training can make people with anxious personalities less anxious. The few studies done in the past 40 years regarding this topic have been inconclusive.

In neurofeedback training people’s brain waves are measured on their scalps and fed back to them on a computer screen. This way people can learn to regulate their own brain waves by enhancing waves that are associated with calm alertness and reducing waves associated with anxiety.

If you qualify to participate in our study, you will be randomly assigned to either the treatment group or the control group. As part of the treatment group, you will receive the anxiety reduction training. As part of the control group you will receive an alternative neurofeedback training. You will not know in which group you participated until the end of this study. Any data we collect from you during the study will not be stored with any personal identifiers, but rather with an assigned number.

During the neurofeedback sessions you will be seated in a comfortable chair in front of a computer screen. We will place three sensors on your scalp with a drop of paste, record the electrical activity in your brain, and feed it back to you. We will train you for 10 half hour sessions (2-3 times per week for 4-5 weeks). This is a very safe procedure; you will not receive any electric shocks. Our hope is that this neurofeedback training will reduce anxiety symptoms in people with anxious personalities and become another great adjunct treatment option for them.

To participate:

1. You have to be 18 years or older.
2. You have to consider yourself an anxious individual.
3. You should have had no prior EEG neurofeedback training experience.
4. You should not suffer from seizure disorders or have co-occuring serious mental health conditions, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder or substance use disorder.
5. You will have to answer a pre-screening survey on Survey Monkey. This will take about 20-30 minutes to complete. You may or may not be invited to participate in our neurofeedback study depending on your survey results.

Training location: Behavioral and Cognitive Treatment Associates, LLC / 270 Farmington Ave (Farmington Exchange building), Suite 313 / Farmington, CT (across the street from the UCONN Health Center)

Compensation: You will receive $5 at each of the ten sessions to off set the travel costs. You will also receive a $100 gift card of your choice for your time and effort when you finish all ten neurofeedback sessions.

Ethics Committee approval: This study has been approved by the University of Hartford Institutional Review Board (Study number: PRO15070009) and has been found to be a safe and ethical study design for human participants.

Contact information: Dipl.-Psych. Bettina Viereck, MS, the study’s principal investigator, at viereck@hartford.edu or at (860) 768-5323.