Evaluating the effectiveness of neurofeedback treatment on depression, anxiety, stress and abdominal pain in patients with chronic psychosomatic abdominal pains

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of neurofeedback treatment on depression, anxiety, stress and psychosomatic abdominal pains in patients with clinical chronic psychosomatic abdominal pains in Shiraz.
This research was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest control group. The study population was all women with chronic psychosomatic abdominal pains among whom, 40 patients were selected for this study; ultimately, data were analyzed with 30 patients (experimental group=15 and control group=15). Participants were randomly assigned to 2 groups consisting of 15 participants who were divided into an experimental group and a control group. In this intervention, the experimental group was treated with neurofeedback for 10 weeks (3 times a week for 40 minutes) and the control group received no intervention and was put on a waiting list. Also, experimental and control groups completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21) in pre-test and post-test. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used for data analysis.
The results of covariance analysis showed that neurofeedback therapy had an impact on reducing anxiety and depression (P