Healing depression by treating trauma?
Description
Scientific studies of EMDR have shown that it is one of the most effective tools for treating posttraumatic stress disorders. One of the lesser-known properties of EMDR is that it also seems to be an effective psychotherapy method in a number of disorders, which may have part of their origins in stressful memories. One of these disorders is chronic depression.
Severe depression is one of the most common mental disorders and affects between 5-15% of the general population during their lifetimes. Although many psychotherapeutic and pharmacologic interventions exist that are considered to be effective in depression, the treatment is less than satisfactory. High relapse rates (around 50% after two years), unsatisfactory remissions and suicidal risks are among the major problems. Research shows that there may be a link between traumatic events (such as abuse experience in childhood) and the later occurrence of a depressive disorder. Research also shows that patients with a traumatic childhood history respond differently to treatment than patients without such a history do.
However, there is no published systematic study that tries to explore the potential use of trauma-specific treatments, such as EMDR, with depressive patients with a trauma history.
The presenter will report on the status of research on this subject and on a current controlled study, which is exploring the use of EMDR in depressive patients.
Severe depression is one of the most common mental disorders and affects between 5-15% of the general population during their lifetimes. Although many psychotherapeutic and pharmacologic interventions exist that are considered to be effective in depression, the treatment is less than satisfactory. High relapse rates (around 50% after two years), unsatisfactory remissions and suicidal risks are among the major problems. Research shows that there may be a link between traumatic events (such as abuse experience in childhood) and the later occurrence of a depressive disorder. Research also shows that patients with a traumatic childhood history respond differently to treatment than patients without such a history do.
However, there is no published systematic study that tries to explore the potential use of trauma-specific treatments, such as EMDR, with depressive patients with a trauma history.
The presenter will report on the status of research on this subject and on a current controlled study, which is exploring the use of EMDR in depressive patients.
Format
Conference
Language
English
Original Work Citation
Hofmann, A. (2010, June). Healing depression by treating trauma? Keynote presented at the 11th EMDR Europe Association Conference, Hamburg, Germany
Citation
“Healing depression by treating trauma?,” Francine Shapiro Library, accessed May 11, 2024, https://francineshapirolibrary.omeka.net/items/show/19540.