Moderate effectiveness: 0.69
What is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)?
1. When a distressing experience occurs, it overwhelms normal coping mechanisms,
with the memory and associated stimuli being inadequately processed and stored in an isolated memory network.
2. Has the patient recall distressing images while receiving one of several types of bilateral sensory input, such as side-to-side eye movements or hand tapping.
3. Possibly works by (1) taxing working memory and (2) orienting response/REM sleep.
Evidence:
0.74 moderate to large effect: reduced trauma symptoms (Lee & Cuijpers, 2013)
1.01 large effect: reduced post traumatic stress disorder symptoms (Watts, Schnurr, Mayo, Young-Xu, Weeks, & Friedman, 2013)
0.63 moderate effect: reduced depression symptoms (Ho & Lee, 2012)
0.68 moderate effect: reduced post traumatic stress disorder symptoms (Rolfsnes & Idsoe, 2011)
1.27 large effect: reduced post traumatic stress disorder in children (Roos, Oord, Zijlstra, Lucassen, Perrin, Emmelkamp, & de Jongh, 2017)
0.43 small to moderate effect: reduced post traumatic stress disorder in survivors of natural or man-made disasters (Brown, Witt, Fegert, Keller, Rassenhofer, & Plener, 2017)
0.77 moderate to large effect: reduced post traumatic stress disorder symptoms (Köhler, Eggert, Lorenz, Herr, Willmund, Zimmermann, & Alliger-Horn, 2017)
0.79 moderate to large effect: reduced pain intensity in non-specific chronic back pain patients (Gerhardt, Leisner, Hartmann, Janke, Seidler, Eich, & Tesarz, 2016)
0.39 moderate effect: reduced disability in non-specific chronic back pain patients (Gerhardt, Leisner, Hartmann, Janke, Seidler, Eich, & Tesarz, 2016)
0.50 moderate effect: reduced pain intensity in non-specific chronic back pain patients 6 months after treatment (Gerhardt, Leisner, Hartmann, Janke, Seidler, Eich, & Tesarz, 2016)
0.14 no effect: reduction in disability not effective in non-specific chronic back pain patients 6 months after treatment (Gerhardt, Leisner, Hartmann, Janke, Seidler, Eich, & Tesarz, 2016)
0.46 small to moderate effect: reduced anxiety in patients with anxiety disorders (Staring, van den Berg, Cath, Schoorl, Engelhard, & Korrelboom, 2016)
Brown, R. C., Witt, A., Fegert, J. M., Keller, F., Rassenhofer, M., & Plener, P. L. (2017). Psychosocial interventions for children and adolescents after man-made and natural disasters: A meta-analysis and systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 47(11), 1893-1905. doi:10.1017/S0033291717000496
Gerhardt, A., Leisner, S., Hartmann, M., Janke, S., Seidler, G. H., Eich, W., & Tesarz, J. (2016). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing vs. Treatment-as-usual for non-specific chronic back pain patients with psychological trauma: A randomized controlled pilot study. Frontiers In Psychiatry, 7 doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2016.00201
Ho, M. K., & Lee, C. W. (2012). Cognitive behaviour therapy versus eye movement desensitization and reprocessing for post-traumatic disorder—Is it all in the homework then?. European Review Of Applied Psychology / Revue Européenne De Psychologie Appliquée, 62(4), 253-260. doi:10.1016/j.erap.2012.08.001
Köhler, K., Eggert, P., Lorenz, S., Herr, K., Willmund, G., Zimmermann, P., & Alliger-Horn, C. (2017). Effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing in German armed forces soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder under routine inpatient care conditions. Military Medicine, 182(5), e1672-e1680. doi:10.7205/MILMED-D-16-00307
Lee, C. W., & Cuijpers, P. (2013). A meta-analysis of the contribution of eye movements in processing emotional memories. Journal Of Behavior Therapy And Experimental Psychiatry, 44(2), 231-239. doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2012.11.001 (EMDR)
Rolfsnes, E. S., & Idsoe, T. (2011). School-based intervention programs for PTSD symptoms: A review and meta-analysis. Journal Of Traumatic Stress, 24(2), 155-165. doi:10.1002/jts.20622
Roos, C., Oord, S., Zijlstra, B., Lucassen, S., Perrin, S., Emmelkamp, P., & de Jongh, A. (2017). Comparison of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, cognitive behavioral writing therapy, and wait‐list in pediatric posttraumatic stress disorder following single‐incident trauma: A multicenter randomized clinical trial. Journal Of Child Psychology And Psychiatry, 58(11), 1219-1228. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12768
Staring, A. P., van den Berg, D. G., Cath, D. C., Schoorl, M., Engelhard, I. M., & Korrelboom, C. W. (2016). Self-esteem treatment in anxiety: A randomized controlled crossover trial of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) versus Competitive Memory Training (COMET) in patients with anxiety disorders. Behaviour Research And Therapy, 8211-20. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2016.04.002
Watts, B. V., Schnurr, P. P., Mayo, L., Young-Xu, Y., Weeks, W. B., & Friedman, M. J. (2013). Meta-analysis of the efficacy of treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder. The Journal Of Clinical Psychiatry, 74(6), e551-e557. doi:10.4088/JCP.12r08225
How To Therapy 