There has been an abundance of ADHD neurofeedback (NF) studies in the past decade in an effort to show NF’s efficacy on reducing the cardinal symptoms of ADHD. A recent meta-analysis concluded that NF was an efficacious treatment of ADHD, with a large effect size for inattention and impulsivity and a medium effect size for hyperactivity. Most studies, including the ones in the meta-analysis, have used a wait-list or active control as comparison groups. More recently, there have been a few NF studies using a blinded placebo-controlled design. These studies have shown equivocal results, indicating NF and placebo NF produced similar outcomes.
In our randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study we found no significant differences between conditions on parent and teacher ratings, and children’s IVA scores. However, when EEG learning was used as a moderating variable there were significant differences between groups for the teacher ratings and IVA scores. This presentation will review the ADHD NF research highlighting studies using placebo as a comparison, and how learning to change EEG can impact results in a NF placebo-controlled study of ADHD children.
