Evaluation of the One-Session Eye-Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Procedure for Eliminating Traumatic Memories

Oswalt, Robert; Anderson, Mark; Hagstrom, Karen; Berkowitz, Bernard

doi:10.2466/pr0.1993.73.1.99

Cited by 19 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…There have been case reports or studies which have suggested that EMDR is not an effective treatment for PTSD (Jensen, 1994;Oswalt, Anderson, Hagstrom, & Berkowitz, 1993). These studies have been criticized (as an example, Jensen, 1994) for the use of psychology interns as experimenters, the use of disability-dependent military veterans, inadequate training in the procedure, and low fidelity to EMDR treatment protocols (Greenwald, 1996;Shapiro, 1996).…”

Section: Treatment Efficacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing: a treatment efficacy model

Welch¹,

Beere

2002

Clin Psychology and Psychoth

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Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), though controversial, is increasingly utilized for treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This article reviews the debate concerning efficacy and concludes that the evidence, though not definitive, supports EMDR's positive treatment effects. The authors argue that EMDR is a therapeutic intervention different from exposure. The authors set forth three interrelated hypotheses to explain EMDR's therapeutic mechanism: bilateral hemispheric activation, normalized brain activation patterns, and activation/desensitization of emotion/arousal; avoidant/constricted attention is disrupted, allowing normalizing processes to occur. Lowered arousal then leads to a resumption of more adaptive cognitive processing. Some predictions to test this model are presented.

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Section: Treatment Efficacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing: a treatment efficacy model

Welch¹,

Beere

2002

Clin Psychology and Psychoth

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“…Considerable interest has recently been generated by case reports of rapid improvements in post-trauma symptoms using eye-movements, in the procedure known as eye-movement desensitization-reprocessing (EMD-R; Kleinknecht & Morgan, 1992;Lipke & B o t h , 1992;McCann, 1992;Oswalt, Anderson, Hagstrom & Berkowitz, 1993;Page & Crino, 1993;Puk, 1991;Shapiro, 1989u, b;Spector & Huthwaite, 1993;Wolpe & Abrams, 1991). In the original form of this procedure, clients imagine the traumatic event together with associated thoughts and somatic reactions while they visually track the therapist's finger, which moves rapidly from side to side across the visual field.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye‐movements and visual imagery: A working memory approach to the treatment of post‐traumatic stress disorder

Andrade

Kavanagh

Baddeley

1997

British J Clinic Psychol

354

348

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It has been claimed that the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be ameliorated by eye-movement desensitization-reprocessing therapy (EMD-R), a procedure that involves the individual making saccadic eye-movements while imagining the traumatic event. We hypothesized that these eye-movements reduce the vividness of distressing images by disrupting the function of the visuospatial sketchpad (VSSP) of working memory, and that by doing so they reduce the intensity of the emotion associated with the image. This hypothesis was tested by asking non-PTSD participants to form images of neutral and negative pictures under dual task conditions. Their images were less vivid with concurrent eye-movements and with a concurrent spatial tapping task that did not involve eye-movements. In the first three experiments, these secondary tasks did not consistently affect participants' emotional responses to the images. However, Expt 4 used personal recollections as stimuli for the imagery task, and demonstrated a significant reduction in emotional response under the same dual task conditions. These results suggest that, if EMD-R works, it does so by reducing the vividness and emotiveness of traumatic images via the VSSP of working memory. Other visuospatial tasks may also be of therapeutic value.

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“…At level 1, qualitative reports and uncontrolled studies (i.e., without control group) have suggested that EMDR might have interesting therapeutic results (e.g., Marquis, 1991 ; Puk, 1991 ; Wolpe and Abrams, 1991 ; Lipke and Botkin, 1992 ; Oswalt et al, 1993 ; Pellicer, 1993 ; Forbes et al, 1994 ; Spates and Burnette, 1995 ).…”

Section: The Scientific Community Is Divided About Emdrmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Integrative Model for the Neural Mechanism of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Coubard¹

2016

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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Since the seminal report by Shapiro that bilateral stimulation induces cognitive and emotional changes, 26 years of basic and clinical research have examined the effects of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in anxiety disorders, particularly in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The present article aims at better understanding EMDR neural mechanism. I first review procedural aspects of EMDR protocol and theoretical hypothesis about EMDR effects, and develop the reasons why the scientific community is still divided about EMDR. I then slide from psychology to physiology describing eye movements/emotion interaction from the physiological viewpoint, and introduce theoretical and technical tools used in movement research to re-examine EMDR neural mechanism. Using a recent physiological model for the neuropsychological architecture of motor and cognitive control, the Threshold Interval Modulation with Early Release-Rate of rIse Deviation with Early Release (TIMER-RIDER)—model, I explore how attentional control and bilateral stimulation may participate to EMDR effects. These effects may be obtained by two processes acting in parallel: (i) activity level enhancement of attentional control component; and (ii) bilateral stimulation in any sensorimotor modality, both resulting in lower inhibition enabling dysfunctional information to be processed and anxiety to be reduced. The TIMER-RIDER model offers quantitative predictions about EMDR effects for future research about its underlying physiological mechanisms.

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Evaluation of the One-Session Eye-Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Procedure for Eliminating Traumatic Memories

Cited by 19 publications

References 5 publications

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing: a treatment efficacy model

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing: a treatment efficacy model

Eye‐movements and visual imagery: A working memory approach to the treatment of post‐traumatic stress disorder

An Integrative Model for the Neural Mechanism of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

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