TDNet Discover

Background: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric condition that affects many people who have experienced or witnessed traumatic events. Patients diagnosed with PTSD may experience symptoms such as negative thoughts and memories, mood disturbances, flashbacks of traumatic events, and irritability for weeks to months if untreated. Forms of psychotherapy approaches and medications are primarily utilized by providers to treat patients with PTSD. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a type of psychotherapy that incorporates the patient doing guided eye movements while processing their traumatic events in order to alter their reaction to the associated event. Purpose: This research sought to evaluate the efficacy of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy for the treatment of patients with PTSD. The efficacy of EMDR therapy was compared to other forms of treatment such as psychotherapy including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), prolonged exposure therapy, or no intervention. The purpose of this research is to determine whether EMDR is superior to other forms of treatment and whether or not it may be considered a first-line treatment for patients with PTSD. Methods: Using an evidence-based clinical review (EBCR), three researchers independently searched several databases with agreed-upon search phrases, limits, and inclusion and exclusion criteria. Titles, abstracts, and full text were reviewed along with a quality assessment tool to include only studies of good quality. Finally, a data extraction tool was utilized to segment key data for qualitative analysis. Results: The results of this research support the use of EMDR therapy due to its statistical significance in reducing anxiety in comparison to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The results from studies suggest that EMDR therapy is a more efficient treatment than Prolonged v Exposure (PE) therapy. Furthermore, EMDR was shown to have a moderate to large effect on decreasing symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, depression, or subjective distress. Conclusion: There is evidence to support the use of EMDR as a first-line treatment option for patients suffering from symptoms of PTSD due to the statistically significant results and conclusions from the articles utilized in this research.