Effects of neurofeedback-based EEG α and EEG β training in patients with chronically decompensated tinnitus

Background. Persisting tinnitus is an often devastating disease condition with restricted and rarely successful therapeutic options. Patients and methods. The present study investigates the therapeutic effect of short term neurofeedback-based EEG-Alphaand EEG-Beta-training in 40 patients suffering from "chronic decompensated tinnitus": Patients were assigned to the Alpha or Beta group according to results of an initial EEG monitored stress-test. Four patients were excluded because they showed abnormal reactions in both EEG patterns. Results. During 12 sessions, 23 patients succeeded to increase EEG Alpha activity by 16% (pless than or equal to0.042) while 13 patients achie-ved no decrease of EEG Beta activity. However, both groups showed a significant reduction of subjective tinnitus annoyance by the end of the therapy (pless than or equal to0.001) Conclusions. The results indicate that neurofeedback may represent a new promising technique in the therapy of chronic decompensated tinnitus. However, it remains to be established whether the reduction of tinnitus annoyance results from the altered brain activity patterns supported by the neurofeedback learning process.