Comparison of the Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Neurofeedback: Reducing Anxiety Symptoms

The current study aimed at investigating the effect of neurofeedback (NF) therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) on reduction of anxiety symptoms in females with social anxiety disorders.
The current pseudo-experimental study with pretest-posttest design and a control group was conducted on a population of patients with social anxiety disorder referring to a psychology clinic in Kurdistan Province, Iran. The sample size comprised of 30 females selected by random sampling method and assigned to groups of NF and CBT. Data elicited from the Libowitz social anxiety questionnaire to detect the subjects with social anxiety and the Millon clinical multiaxial inventory (MCMI III) in order to exclude subjects with personality disorder. Data were analyzed with SPSS. Covariance analysis test and dependent t test were performed on CBT and NF groups.
The current study findings showed that both CBT and NF groups were impressive in reducing the level of social anxiety in the study subjects. Also, based on the results of the current study the therapy methods had no significant differences between the two groups.
Both treatments were significantly effective, and therefore both NF and CBT can be applied as choice therapies to treat social anxiety.