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- Title
Neurofeedback Treatment Affects Affective Symptoms, But Not Perceived Cognitive Impairment in Cancer Patients: Results of an Explorative Randomized Controlled Trial.
- Authors
Fink, Madeleine; Pasche, Saskia; Schmidt, Kira; Tewes, Mitra; Schuler, Martin; Mülley, Bernhard W.; Schadendorf, Dirk; Scherbaum, Norbert; Kowalski, Axel; Skoda, Eva-Maria; Teufel, Martin
- Abstract
Background: EEG biofeedback (NF) is an established therapy to enable individuals to influence their own cognitiveemotional state by addressing changes in brainwaves. Psycho-oncological approaches of NF in cancer patients are rare and effects are hardly studied. Objective: The aim of this explorative, randomized controlled trial was to test the effectiveness of an alpha and theta NF training protocol, compared to mindfulness based therapy as an established psycho-oncological treatment. Methods: Of initially 62 screened patients, 56 were included (inclusion criteria were cancer independent of tumor stage, age >18 years, German speaking; exclusion criteria suicidal ideation, brain tumor). Randomization and stratification (tumor stage) was conducted by a computer system. Participants got 10 sessions over 5 weeks, in (a) an NF intervention (n = 21; 13 female, 8 male; MAge = 52.95(10 519); range = 31 to 73 years)) or (b) a mindfulness group therapy as control condition (CG; n = 21; ie, 15 female, 6 male; MAge = 50.33(8708); range = 32 to 67 years)). Outcome parameters included self-reported cognitive impairment (PCI) as primary outcome, and secondary outcomes of emotional distress (DT, PHQ-8, GAD-7), fatigue (MFI-20), rumination (RSQ), quality of life (QoL, EORTC-30 QoL), self-efficacy (GSE), and changes in EEG alpha, and theta-beta band performance in the NF condition. Results: No changes in cognitive impairment were found (P = .079), neither in NF nor CG. High affective distress was evident, with 70.7% showing elevated distress and 34.1% showing severe depressive symptoms. Affective symptoms of distress (P = .01), depression (P = .05) and generalized anxiety (P = .05) decreased significantly over time. No differences between NF and CG were found. There was a significant increase of the alpha band (P = .05; N = 15) over the NF sessions. Self-efficacy predicted QoL increase in NF with P = .001 and an explained variance of 48.2%. Conclusion: This is the first study to investigate NF technique with regard to basic mechanisms of effectiveness in a sample of cancer patients, compared to an established psycho-oncological intervention in this field. Though there were no changes in cognitive impairment, present data show that NF improves affective symptoms comparably to mindfulness-based therapy and even more pronounced in QoL and self-efficacy.
- Subjects
CANCER patient psychology; MINDFULNESS; RESEARCH; ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY; MILD cognitive impairment; LARGE-scale brain networks; PSYCHO-oncology; SELF-evaluation; BIOFEEDBACK training; TREATMENT effectiveness; RANDOMIZED controlled trials; COMPARATIVE studies; TUMOR classification; SUICIDAL ideation; BRAIN tumors; PSYCHOLOGICAL tests; SELF-efficacy; ALEXITHYMIA; COMPUTER systems; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; QUESTIONNAIRES; AFFECTIVE disorders; MENTAL depression; QUALITY of life; RESEARCH funding; ANXIETY; COGNITIVE therapy; PSYCHOLOGICAL distress; PSYCHOTHERAPY; EVALUATION
- Publication
Integrative Cancer Therapies, 2023, Vol 22, p1
- ISSN
1534-7354
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/15347354221149950