A recent opinion piece in the prestigious journal Cell asserts that neurofeedback is well-positioned to help with stress, especially when psychotherapy and/or medication alone are not working. The article is behind a pay wall, but you can read the abstract here.

One quote I found interesting is, “Stress-related disorders are among the biggest global health challenges. Despite significant progress in understanding their neurocognitive basis, the promise of applying insights from fundamental research to prevention and treatment remains largely unfulfilled. We argue that neurofeedback—a method for training voluntary control over brain activity—has the potential to fill this transitional gap.”

The article also addresses the fact that efforts to reduce stress-related disorders have remained “largely unsuccessful,” and stress has risen even more in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors also point out that geopolitical events and climate change also increase global stress levels.

It is heartening to see that scientists increasingly understand and are writing about the promise of neurofeedback brain training.