Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing in the Treatment of Pre-adolescent Children with Post-traumatic Symptoms

Abstract

This article describes the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) with four pre-adolescent children. EMDR has been shown to bring rapid relief in adults with PTSD. Studies are beginning to show that it can also be useful in work with young children. However, the standard protocol requires some adjustment to make it suitable for use with young children. In addition, in situations where children have complex difficulties in addition to PTSD, EMDR may need to be used alongside other interventions within a complex treatment package. This study describes brief work carried out with four pre-adolescent children with PTSD. Three of these children had received no treatment despite suffering from significant and chronic symptoms for some years. One had suffered a recent traumatic bereavement. All had additional problems that required intervention. EMDR was used as part of a multimodal treatment package. In all cases, the children's PTSD symptoms resolved within 2-4 sessions of EMDR. The maximum total number of sessions was 7. The

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Maltreated Youth: A Review of Contemporary Research and Thought

“…Ahmad et al (2007) found that 8-session EDMR for children with PTSD, many of whom had experienced maltreatment, produced markedly reduced PTSD symptoms than controls, especially for reexperiencing symptoms. These data support other preliminary work regarding EMDR for adolescents with PTSD and the treatment has been described as possibly efficacious (Silverman et al 2008;Tufnell 2005).…”

Effectiveness of MASTR EMDR Therapy for Traumatized Adolescents

“…Indeed, youth have done quite well with EMDR, with rapid reduction or elimination of trauma symptoms as reported in case reports (Cocco & Sharpe, 1993;Greenwald, 1994;Pellicer, 1993;Puffer, Greenwald, & Elrod, 1998;Tufnell, 2005) and the controlled comparison studies noted previously (Chemtob, Nakashima, & Carlson, 2002;de Roos et al, 2008;Jaberghaderi et al, 2004;Wanders et al, 2008). Several EMDR studies are of particular interest for the population in this study.…”

Effect of Bilateral Eye Movements on Frontal Interhemispheric Gamma EEG Coherence

“…No studies have directly compared the efficacy of these different forms of bilateral stimulation; because the majority of articles published on EMDR involve use of bilateral EMs, they will be the focus of the current article. Although the clinical efficacy of EMDR has been demonstrated (e.g., Russell, 2006;Tufnell, 2005), there is little evidence at present that it differs in efficacy from other therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy. However, understanding how EMs affect the brain may help shed light on EMDR's underlying neural mechanisms, which remain controversial (e.g., Perkins and Rouanzoin, 2002).…”