Efficacy of Neurofeedback on Decision-Making and Planning Ability in People with Opioid Use Disorder

The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the efficacy of neurofeedback on executive functions in people with opioid use disorder. It was an applied and quasi-experimental study with a pretest and posttest design and a control group. The statistical population of the study included subjects who had gone to Shafa addiction treatment clinic in Bushehr city in 2020. The number of 29 male subjects with opioid use disorder was divided into two experimental groups (number = 14; mean age = 43.79; standard deviation = 9.8) and a control group (number = 15; averageage= 44.60; standard deviation = 8.6), which were left to chance. Prior to the application of training, the pretest was administered using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) or the Tower of London Test (TOL) to measure decision-making and planning ability. After the application of the neurofeedback training, a posttest was administered to the participants. The results of multivariate analysis of covariance using SPSS-26 software showed that neurofeedback training had a significant effect on decision-making ability, leading to better preference in participants’ decisions with an effect size of 0.783. In contrast, the aforementioned method showed no significant difference in planning ability. The results of the present study indicate that neurofeedback training can have an effect on decision-making ability and that this method can be used to reduce risk-taking in people with opioid use disorder.