Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Neil P Roberts et al. (2019) · European journal of psychotraumatology

This systematic review and meta-analysis explored which early psychological treatments, started within three months of a traumatic event, reduce post-traumatic stress symptoms. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involves intrusive memories, avoidance and heightened alertness that persist after trauma, and acute stress disorder (ASD) is a similar early reaction in the first month. The authors updated an earlier 2009 review, pooled 61 randomized controlled trials, and prepared it as part of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies treatment guidelines. Trials were split into three groups: help offered to everyone exposed to a trauma, help for people already showing symptoms, and help for people diagnosed with ASD or PTSD. Included trials tested a wide range of approaches, including trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT-T, which uses written, imagined or real-life exposure to the trauma), cognitive therapy without exposure, brief EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, a therapy in which a person recalls a trauma while following guided eye movements), cognitive processing therapy, internet-based self-help and stepped collaborative care. Most participants were adults recruited after accidents, assaults, injury or intensive care. Symptom severity was compared using standardized mean differences (SMD, where negative favors treatment), and the authors rated evidence quality with GRADE. For people not screened for symptoms, no intervention was clinically better than usual care. For people with symptoms, CBT-T outperformed waitlist (SMD -0.63) and supportive counselling (SMD -0.61) after treatment, and the gap was larger in diagnosed ASD or PTSD (SMD -0.89 and -0.75). Cognitive therapy versus waitlist reached SMD -0.68, and brief EMDR reached SMD -2.50, though that result came from four small trials with only 84 participants and very low quality evidence. CBT-T and cognitive therapy performed similarly (SMD -0.19). Benefits were less consistent at 7 to 12 months, and cognitive processing therapy showed no effect in two trials. The authors judged the CBT-T, cognitive therapy and EMDR findings clinically important, whereas significant effects for collaborative care, brief dyadic therapy and a self-guided internet program in unscreened individuals were not judged clinically important. Most ratings were low or very low quality, and few trials reported adverse events. The authors suggest that CBT-T, cognitive therapy and brief EMDR are supported for symptomatic people and that routine intervention for everyone exposed is not supported. They note limits: diverse studies, many small trials, high attrition, inconsistent follow-up and thin safety data. They also caution that the large EMDR effect rests on very few participants, that pooled estimates are uncertain because most GRADE ratings were low or very low, and that non-publication of negative results cannot be excluded.

Veerle Oosterbaan et al. (2019) · European journal of psychotraumatology

This systematic review and meta-analysis explored whether psychological help offered within 3 months of a sexual assault can reduce or prevent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition in which distressing memories, avoidance and heightened alertness persist after trauma. The authors searched six databases for studies from 1980 to April 2018, and excluded psychological debriefing because earlier work found it harmful. They report that this narrow question had not been reviewed before. Seven studies with 350 participants met the criteria and tested five different early interventions, a small evidence base that the authors describe as diverse in design and timing. The included studies were mostly of women in high-income countries, with average ages of 22 to 34, recruited through hospitals, forensic examinations or counselling centres. Interventions ranged from a single 9- or 17-minute educational video to a 113-minute EMDR session (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, in which a person recalls a trauma while following guided eye movements), a modified prolonged exposure session (structured, repeated recalling of the trauma), cognitive restructuring with relaxation, and six weeks of cognitive processing therapy. Two authors independently screened studies and rated risk of bias; four studies compared with standard care were pooled. Pooling four studies, early intervention did not clearly reduce PTSD severity at 1 to 6 weeks (g = -0.28, 95% CI -0.57 to 0.02; g is a standardized effect size, where negative favors intervention), though all four leaned that way. At 2 to 12 months, a small effect just reached significance (g = -0.23, 95% CI -0.46 to 0.00), with no measured heterogeneity. Two studies that compared PTSD diagnoses found no difference between groups. Safety data were thin: only two studies reported adverse events, and none used an active strategy to detect harm, though author contact turned up no serious events. All seven studies were judged at high risk of bias, and true randomization occurred in only two of the five studies that compared treatment groups, which the authors link to a high risk of selection bias. The authors suggest that early interventions may lead to lasting reductions in PTSD severity after sexual assault, but state that definite conclusions about safety, efficacy and PTSD prevention are impossible with so few, heterogeneous, high-risk-of-bias studies. They also note that the studies used older PTSD definitions from DSM-III-R and DSM-IV. They call for trials that actively track harm, report PTSD diagnoses as well as symptom scores, compare early with later treatment, and consider cost and access for survivors.

Milou L V Covers et al. (2021) · European journal of psychotraumatology

This randomized controlled trial with 57 recent rape victims explored whether early eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy reduces post-traumatic stress more effectively than watchful waiting, the standard wait-and-monitor approach used at Dutch sexual assault centres. EMDR is a trauma-focused psychotherapy in which a therapist guides bilateral eye movements while the person recalls a distressing memory, aiming to reduce the memory's vividness and emotional charge. Watchful waiting, by contrast, involves brief check-ins, psychoeducation, and emotional support without active trauma processing. About 40% of rape victims develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within three months, making the timing and content of early support clinically significant. Fifty-seven participants (56 women, one man; average age about 26) were randomly assigned, between two and four weeks after a rape, to either two sessions of EMDR therapy (3.5 hours total, using a protocol adapted for very recent trauma) or two brief supportive phone calls with a case manager. Symptoms were measured before treatment, right after treatment, and again at 8 and 12 weeks using clinician-rated and self-report scales covering post-traumatic stress (CAPS-5, PCL-5), anxiety and depression (HADS), dissociation (DTS), general psychological symptoms (BSI), and sexual functioning (FSFI, AOPFS). Both groups improved substantially over the 12 weeks (large effect sizes, Cohen's d around 1.5, meaning both approaches were followed by a large drop in symptoms), but EMDR was not more effective than watchful waiting for post-traumatic stress symptoms at any time point (no statistically significant difference, p > .05 throughout). EMDR did show a short-lived edge over watchful waiting on anxiety (a 2.25-point lower score on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale immediately after treatment, p = .023) and on dissociative symptoms (p = .013), but both advantages faded by the 12-week follow-up. No meaningful differences emerged between the two approaches for depression, general psychological symptoms, sexual functioning, or feelings of guilt and shame. By 12 weeks, fewer EMDR participants still met PTSD diagnostic criteria than watchful-waiting participants (16% versus 35%), though this difference was not formally tested for significance. One EMDR participant left the study after an increase in suicidal thoughts and received care; the treatment was otherwise well tolerated. The authors conclude that two sessions of early EMDR conferred no lasting advantage over watchful waiting for recent rape victims and, given its lower cost, state that the findings support existing guidance favoring watchful waiting as the default early response. The comparison involved an active watchful-waiting condition rather than no treatment, so the trial cannot show whether either approach outperforms natural recovery. The sample was small, mostly female, and experienced considerable dropout (21 of 57 participants), limiting how far the results generalize to other populations. The authors call for further research into watchful waiting's own effectiveness as an early intervention.