Cost, research, and education: Providers’ perspectives on making neurofeedback more accessible

Background 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. Methods As part of a larger implementation study using mixed methods to identify determinants of neurofeedback implementation, this qualitative study utilized a portion of semi-structured qualitative interviews with neurofeedback practitioners practicing in an outpatient setting (n = 17) to specifically explore participants’ ideas around increasing accessibility of the intervention. Results 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 insurance coverage; (b) better provider education, including introduction into graduate school curriculum; and (c) more research/research funding. Conclusion Study participants described a variety of specific strategies to make neurofeedback more readily available in routine outpatient mental healthcare. These findings reveal avenues to increase the uptake of neurofeedback in mental healthcare and future directions for implementation science research in the neurofeedback field.