The effects of neurofeedback on mental work load in occupational therapists

Mental workload is one of the affecting factors in efficiency and performance of therapist in the workplace. Neuro feedback is a new modality for improvement of healthy person's daily activity and its quality. The aim of this study is evaluation of neurofeedback effects on mental work load in occupational therapists.
This study has experimental design with pre-post test, experimental- fake group and was performed on 22 occupational therapists. Subjects were divided into two real neuro feedback and mock neuro feedback (placebo) groups. Both groups were treated with neuro feedback for 12 sessions. NASA (task load index) was used to assess both groups before and after the treatment. Effect size and improvement percentage were used to analyze the collected data.
The results of the improvement percentage showed that mental need and hopelessness subscales in real neuro feedback have more than 15% difference in comparison with mock neuro feedback that indicate clinical significant. Effect size in the real neuro feedback on mental need subscale was great and in time need and hopelessness subscales were average. Effect size in mock neuro feedback on total subscales was low.
The effectiveness of real neuro feedback was not due to the changes in the placebo. It can be as a complementary decreasing in the mental work load.