Neurofeedback Therapy for Methamphetamine Abuser: Improvement of Anxiety

Introduction: Methamphetamine dependence is a crucial health problem in Iran and the world. There is no effective medical treatment for methamphetamine use or dependence. The aim of this study is to find how neurofeedback can affect patients who are addicted to methamphetamine. Method: The study population included all male patients with Methamphetamine addiction of therapeutic-community center (TC) in Mashhad (Iran), who were under group psychotherapy by psychotherapist. For this purpose 20 male patients were selected by available method in terms of age, sex and IQ. All of the male patients were at the average age of 33.9 and the minimum IQ level over 70. According to psychologist and neurologist clinical interview from patient and their family and SCL-90-R questioner all of participants reported high levels of psychiatric symptoms, particularly anxiety. After taking self rating anxiety questionnaire, we divided the patients in two groups; the experimental group and the control group. The patients in the experimental group were only treated for 2 weeks and each week for 5 sessions with neurofeedback and the patients in the control group were only treated with psychotherapy by psychotherapist. The study used the pretest-posttest experimental and control group. At the beginning and the end of this process the patients were given a anxiety evaluation questionnaire. The collected results were analyzed with the use of paired t-Test method. Findings: The patients in the experimental group showed a significant improvement compare to the patients in the control group. Conclusion: This study proved that the patients who are addicted to methamphetamine can reduce their baseline anxiety in using methamphetamine with the use of neurofeedback

کلیدواژه ها:

alpha-theta Neurofeedback ، Methamphetamine-Dependent ، Anxiety ، Efficacy