Observe the therapeutic effect of EEG biofeedback on 82 patients with insomnia

Abstract

AbstractObjective:Insomniais the most prevalent clinical sleep disorder and is usually accompanied by some affective symptoms. To some extent, traditional interventions for insomnia remain some shortcomings. Hence, exploring potential novel interventions for insomnia is of great clinical significance. Recently, the biofeedback therapy (i.e. the electroencephalography EEG and electromyography EMG feedback) has been regarded as a new method for the treatment of insomnia following medication and physical therapy, where EEG information is fed back to the subject for the purpose of self-regulation of EEG activity. We aimed to explore the clinical efficacy of biofeedback for insomnia and its potential mechanisms.Methods:We recruited 82 patients with insomnia from the insomnia clinic of Xuanwu Hospital in this research. The EEG and EMG biofeedback training were conducted for 30 minutes. The EEG data of two minutes were also recorded each before and after the training section. The intervention was performed once every other day and included 10 times treatments in total. The Becker Depression Scale(BDI), state anxiety (S-STAI) and trait anxiety (T-STAI) of Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index(PQRI) scales were administered three times before treatment and after 1 treatment session, respectively.Results:Results showed that the scores of the PQRI scale after 1 trial of biofeedback treatmentwere significantly lower than those before treatment (p< 0.001). Furthermore, the score of the PQRI following 10 trials of biofeedback treatments were significantly lower than values following 5 trials of treatments (p< 0.001). More specifically, patients experienced a significant reduction in insomnia, an easier transition to natural sleep, a shorter time to fall asleep, fewer awakenings during sleep, and a much better quality of sleep. In addition, the scores of the BDI, S-STAI, and T-STAI scales after the treatments were significantly lower than those before the treatments (p<0.001), indicating that the patient's anxiety and depression were relieved. For the physiological results, compared with the baseline level, the patient's prefrontal EMG decreased, EEG alpha waves increased, and EEG beta and theta waves decreased after the biofeedback therapy.Conclusion:Our findings suggest that Biofeedback therapy is effective to relieve insomnia symptoms for insomnia patients. The potential mechanism of the biofeedback therapy might be that the therapy relaxes the patients’ mind (reflected by the alpha wave) and muscles (reflected by EMG), and reduces alertness states (reflected by Beta wave), which finally promotes the deep sleep (reflected by the Theta wave).