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Roshanak Chaychi 
, Leila Sadegh marand , Mozhgan Ghafouri Shahmirzadi , Samin Shahhosseini , Faezeh Jamshidi goharrizi
, Leila Sadegh marand , Mozhgan Ghafouri Shahmirzadi , Samin Shahhosseini , Faezeh Jamshidi goharrizi
Master of consultation and Guidance, Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Aad University, Tonekabon, Iran , mindpsycho819@gmail.com
Abstract: (539 Views)
Mental disorders are a group of disorders that affect the thinking, behavior, mind, psyche, mood, perception and awareness, causing discomfort for the affected person or causing disability in the functioning of the affected person. The causes of mental disorders are not well known, but what is certain is that genetic factors, various stresses, and the type of interaction a person has with others are effective in causing or causing them. The study shows that the rate of mental disorders in Iran is increasing, so that the rate of mental disorders in 2014 was reported as 22% in the general population and this rate in 2011 It has reached about 37%. Anxiety, somatization disorder, and depression, whose incidence rates were 40%, 30%, and 43% in the general population, respectively, are referred to as the most common mental disorders in Iranian society. Among mental disorders in Iran, depression is known as the most common mental disorder.
Depression is referred to as the common cold of mental disorders. According to the definition, depression is a mood disorder that causes a constant feeling of sadness or loss of interest in things that the affected person used to enjoy. Also, depression can interfere with memory, thinking, eating and sleeping. This disorder has a negative impact on a wide range of physical and mental health of affected people, so that the number of physical diseases such as cancer, heart diseases and even overweight is higher in people suffering from depression compared to normal people. Also, compared to normal people, depressed people not only have less psychological well-being, but also these people face a severe drop in academic and job performance. On the other hand, depression is known as the most common mental disorder in people with suicidal thoughts and behavior. Therefore, the importance of depression is not hidden from anyone and its treatment should be followed seriously.
One of the common treatment methods in depression is drug therapy, which fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, paroxetine, and sertraline are known as the most common antidepressant drugs, however, many patients may not respond significantly to drug therapy. And sometimes drug therapy may show less effectiveness than other treatments. Meanwhile, different types of psychotherapy such as cognitive behavioral therapy, emotional therapy, commitment and acceptance therapy, and schema therapy have also provided their treatment protocols to help depressed people. But another non-pharmacological intervention in depression, which has attracted the attention of therapists and researchers in recent years, is neurofeedback therapeutic intervention. Neurofeedback is a relatively new treatment for mental disorders and depression, using real-time scans to show how the patients' brains work and resolve these disorders .
Method
The method of the present study is descriptive and according to the implementation method, it is a systematic review article. Review studies are one of the important types of qualitative research that are used to study phenomena and evaluate important categories based on previous research sources. This method is used when the relevant previous studies related to the desired phenomenon are well covered. In this case, by using these studies, the underlying categories of the studied phenomenon can be evaluated, classified and identified.
The research community includes all articles with the English keywords Depressive Disorder, Major Depression, Mood Disorder, Depression along with Neurofeedback Training, , biofeedback, neurofeedback in foreign databases Scopus, Springer, Web of Science, Google-Scholar, Science Direct and keywords Neurofeedback, bioneurofeedback along with depression, depressive, mood disorder in the internal databases of SID, Normags, Magiran, Civilica, ISC, Google-Scholar, which were published between 1993 and 2023. In order to select relevant studies, the Prism guide for review studies was used. At first, 397 articles were selected using the above keywords in internal and external search engines. After that, 263 studies were excluded due to non-relevance, 71 studies due to duplicates in the search engines. From the remaining 63 studies, after fully reading the articles and applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 47 other studies were excluded and 16 studies were selected for the final sample selection.
Results
The results of this study showed that out of 16 selected studies, 8 studies were conducted in Iran, 3 studies were conducted in South Korea, and 1 study was conducted in China, Russia, Spain, Finland, and the United States. No studies were found in the continent of Africa and South America, and 1 study was selected for the continent of America, which indicates limited studies in this continent. Also, no studies related to before 20100 were found, 9 studies were between 2010 and 2018, and 7 studies were related to the last 5 years. Also, out of the 16 selected studies, most of the studies used the Beck depression questionnaire to measure depression (10 out of 16 studies). Among the conducted studies, only one study had a sample size of more than 50 people, which is because only interventional and therapeutic studies were selected and the sample size in experimental studies in each control and experimental group should be at least 8 people, so In no study, the number of their samples is not less than 16 people. It is also necessary to remember that master case studies or single-subject experimental designs were excluded from the study due to the small number of samples.
Discussion
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of neurofeedback therapy and compare it with other treatment approaches on reducing depression. The results of this study showed that in all the studies conducted, neurofeedback therapy was able to significantly reduce depression in treatment groups. These results are in agreement with the studies of Chubforoshzadeh et al. (2015) who showed that neurofeedback treatment is effective in reducing the symptoms of depression in people with MS and also with the study of Hood et al. (2021), who showed that neurofeedback treatment has a significant effect on Reducing depression in people with generalized anxiety disorder is effective, it is consistent.
Conclusion
The results of this treatment showed that neurofeedback treatment was significantly effective in reducing depression symptoms, and this effectiveness when combined with other treatments is not only more effective, but the durability of the treatment is longer compared to a single treatment. We also need more studies to compare this treatment with other treatments. Considering the effectiveness of this treatment, it is suggested that mental health professionals combine this treatment with other treatments in order to reduce the symptoms of depression and improve the quality of life of depressed patients.
Depression is referred to as the common cold of mental disorders. According to the definition, depression is a mood disorder that causes a constant feeling of sadness or loss of interest in things that the affected person used to enjoy. Also, depression can interfere with memory, thinking, eating and sleeping. This disorder has a negative impact on a wide range of physical and mental health of affected people, so that the number of physical diseases such as cancer, heart diseases and even overweight is higher in people suffering from depression compared to normal people. Also, compared to normal people, depressed people not only have less psychological well-being, but also these people face a severe drop in academic and job performance. On the other hand, depression is known as the most common mental disorder in people with suicidal thoughts and behavior. Therefore, the importance of depression is not hidden from anyone and its treatment should be followed seriously.
One of the common treatment methods in depression is drug therapy, which fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, paroxetine, and sertraline are known as the most common antidepressant drugs, however, many patients may not respond significantly to drug therapy. And sometimes drug therapy may show less effectiveness than other treatments. Meanwhile, different types of psychotherapy such as cognitive behavioral therapy, emotional therapy, commitment and acceptance therapy, and schema therapy have also provided their treatment protocols to help depressed people. But another non-pharmacological intervention in depression, which has attracted the attention of therapists and researchers in recent years, is neurofeedback therapeutic intervention. Neurofeedback is a relatively new treatment for mental disorders and depression, using real-time scans to show how the patients' brains work and resolve these disorders .
Method
The method of the present study is descriptive and according to the implementation method, it is a systematic review article. Review studies are one of the important types of qualitative research that are used to study phenomena and evaluate important categories based on previous research sources. This method is used when the relevant previous studies related to the desired phenomenon are well covered. In this case, by using these studies, the underlying categories of the studied phenomenon can be evaluated, classified and identified.
The research community includes all articles with the English keywords Depressive Disorder, Major Depression, Mood Disorder, Depression along with Neurofeedback Training, , biofeedback, neurofeedback in foreign databases Scopus, Springer, Web of Science, Google-Scholar, Science Direct and keywords Neurofeedback, bioneurofeedback along with depression, depressive, mood disorder in the internal databases of SID, Normags, Magiran, Civilica, ISC, Google-Scholar, which were published between 1993 and 2023. In order to select relevant studies, the Prism guide for review studies was used. At first, 397 articles were selected using the above keywords in internal and external search engines. After that, 263 studies were excluded due to non-relevance, 71 studies due to duplicates in the search engines. From the remaining 63 studies, after fully reading the articles and applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 47 other studies were excluded and 16 studies were selected for the final sample selection.
Results
The results of this study showed that out of 16 selected studies, 8 studies were conducted in Iran, 3 studies were conducted in South Korea, and 1 study was conducted in China, Russia, Spain, Finland, and the United States. No studies were found in the continent of Africa and South America, and 1 study was selected for the continent of America, which indicates limited studies in this continent. Also, no studies related to before 20100 were found, 9 studies were between 2010 and 2018, and 7 studies were related to the last 5 years. Also, out of the 16 selected studies, most of the studies used the Beck depression questionnaire to measure depression (10 out of 16 studies). Among the conducted studies, only one study had a sample size of more than 50 people, which is because only interventional and therapeutic studies were selected and the sample size in experimental studies in each control and experimental group should be at least 8 people, so In no study, the number of their samples is not less than 16 people. It is also necessary to remember that master case studies or single-subject experimental designs were excluded from the study due to the small number of samples.
Discussion
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of neurofeedback therapy and compare it with other treatment approaches on reducing depression. The results of this study showed that in all the studies conducted, neurofeedback therapy was able to significantly reduce depression in treatment groups. These results are in agreement with the studies of Chubforoshzadeh et al. (2015) who showed that neurofeedback treatment is effective in reducing the symptoms of depression in people with MS and also with the study of Hood et al. (2021), who showed that neurofeedback treatment has a significant effect on Reducing depression in people with generalized anxiety disorder is effective, it is consistent.
Conclusion
The results of this treatment showed that neurofeedback treatment was significantly effective in reducing depression symptoms, and this effectiveness when combined with other treatments is not only more effective, but the durability of the treatment is longer compared to a single treatment. We also need more studies to compare this treatment with other treatments. Considering the effectiveness of this treatment, it is suggested that mental health professionals combine this treatment with other treatments in order to reduce the symptoms of depression and improve the quality of life of depressed patients.
Type of Study: review article |
Subject:
Clinical Psychiatry
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