EMDR compared with imaginary exposure

According to Spector and Read (1999), “EMDR is an effective therapeutic procedure. More direct comparisons are needed with exposure therapies which up till now have generally been considered the most effective approaches to PTSD.” They further state that, “Direct comparisons with exposure therapies would be particularly meaningful and revealing if they were compared with EMDR, if the subjects were single trauma PTSD case and if EMDR were applied both with and without bilateral stimulation” (Spector & Read, 1999, the Current Status of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy).

In this presentation, results of a study will be shown in which EMDR was compared with the imaginary exposure procedure. Twenty-five traffic accident victims with trauma complaints were randomly allocated to either EMDR or imaginary exposure. Ten victims received imaginary exposure according to a protocol of Dancu and Foa, 1992 (translated by Arnst, 1997), while ten participants were treated with EMDR based on the PTSD protocol of Shapiro, 1995 (translated by de Jongh, 1996). In the EMDR group, people were exposed to bilateral sounds. The results were compared with an additional group consisting of 5 trauma clients who were exposed to sounds which were simultaneously presented

Conference

English

Monique Renssen

Renssen, M. (2000, May). EMDR compared with imaginary exposure. Presentation at the 1st EMDR Europe Association Conference, Utrecht, Netherlands