Cost, Research, and Education: Providers' Perspectives on Making Neurofeedback More Accessible

Despite a wide variety of research and clinical utilization over the past 50 years, neurofeedback has failed to gain recognition comparable to other well-researched mental health interventions. The goal of this study was to explore neurofeedback practitioners' perspectives on what would help make the intervention more accessible to mental health providers and to the public. Despite a wide variety of research and clinical utilization over the past 50 years, neurofeedback has failed to gain recognition comparable to other well-researched mental health interventions. The goal of this study was to explore neurofeedback practitioners' perspectives on what would help make the intervention more accessible to mental health providers and to the public. As part of a larger implementation study using mixed methods to identify determinants of neurofeedback implementation, this qualitative study involved semi-structured interviews conducted online with 17 neurofeedback practitioners in outpatient settings, analyzed using inductive thematic analysis to identify themes related to accessibility. This study focused on the interview question: "What would help increase the accessibility of neurofeedback to the public?" Interview data were analyzed by two independent coders using inductive thematic analysis. The sample was mostly White (n = 15, 88%) and female (n = 13, 76%) with an average age of 53 years (range: 34-73 years). They averaged 17.8 years in practice (range: 3-36 years) and 8 years practicing neurofeedback (range: 1-20 years). Three major themes to help increase accessibility were identified: (a) financial support, including increased insurance coverage; (b) better provider education, including introduction of neurofeedback into graduate school curriculum; and (c) more research/research funding contributing to the scientific credibility of the neurofeedback field. This study was the first to qualitatively explore the accessibility changes of neurofeedback from an implementation science lens. Study participants described tangible ways to address these challenges through actionable avenues that could ultimately lead to increasing the update of neurofeedback in routine mental healthcare.