EMDR for women who experience traumatic events

Comments on an article by E. B. Foa and G. P. Street,"Women and Traumatic Events, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Vol 62(Suppl 17), 2001. Special issue: Understanding posttraumatic stress disorder, pp. 29-34 regarding psychotherapeutic interventions for women with PTSD. It is noted that Foa and Street describe other psychotherapy procedures, but do not mention eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). Peterson cites that in Effective Treatments for PTSD: Practice Guidelines from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies [ISTSS] , 2 psychotherapy treatments for PTSD are listed as having been shown to be effective: exposure therapy and EMDR. SIT is reported to have had 2 well-controlled studies published on the treatment of PTSD. Both SIT studies were with female sexual assault victims. It is concluded that given that EMDR has been established as effective in the ISTSS guidelines, it may be important for the reader to know that this form of therapy may be applied when confronting the issues addressed in this article. A comment by Foa follows.

Journal

English

Gary Peterson

Peterson, G. (2002). EMDR for women who experience traumatic events. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 63(11), 1047-1048. Author reply 1048. doi:10.4088/JCP.v63n1116e