This study evaluated the effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) in the treatment of traumatized young women.
A total of 60 women between the ages of 16 and 25 were randomly assigned to two sessions of either EMDR or an active listening (AL) control group. Factorial ANOVA interaction effects and simple main effects for outcome measures (Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Penn Inventory for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Impact of Event Scale, Tennessee Self-Concept Scale) indicated significant improvement for both groups and significantly greater pre-post change for EMDR-treated participants. Pre-post effect sizes for the EMDR group averaged 1.56 compared to 0.65 for the AL group. Despite treatment brevity, the post-treatment outcome variable means of EMDR-treated participants compared favorably with nonpatient or successfully treated norm groups on all measures. (publisher abstract modified)