Neurofeedback has a long history, beginning in 1875 when Caton demonstrated that the brain’s electrical activity changed with mental activity. A hundred years later, the first ‘normative databases’ were established. These made it possible to identify which brainwave variations were ‘normal’ and which were ‘abnormal’, creating a strong foundation for clinical practice.
Research into neurofeedback has grown steadily since that time, and continues to grow. There is significant evidence that neurofeedback is effective for multiple conditions.
As a therapy, neurofeedback requires extensive time commitment from the practitioner, and is dependent on that practitioner’s training and skill. This is a very different model from medications. For this reason and others, most neurofeedback trials have involved relatively few participants. There is little infrastructure or funding for large-scale randomised trials, but hundreds of smaller trials and research projects combine to present solid evidence.
The Neurofeedback Alliance maintains a database of neurofeedback research sorted by disorders. Links are listed below:
There is also an extensive record of neurofeedback evidence and research at PubMed, the US National Library of Medicine.
