Internet based treatments for post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Can eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) be delivered via the internet and is exposure necessary for internet‐based cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT)for PTSD?

Internet‐delivered interventions for Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are potentially able to reduce barriers to treatment such as cost, distance and time requirements (Spence et al., 2011). Such interventions to date have been based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with promising results (Amstadter et al., 2009). We conducted an open trial (N=15) of Internet‐based Eye Movement Desensitzation and Reprocessing (iEMDR) for PTSD. Participants showed moderate effect size reductions in symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety. Importantly, this protocol was not well tolerated. Consequently, we conducted a randomized controlled trial (N=128) to determine whether exposure was necessary when treating PTSD via the Internet. Preliminary results from this trial show that participants who received a full CBT protocol including exposure components reported significantly lower improvements in PTSD symptoms than participants who received the same protocol without an exposure components. The findings from this program of research provide initial evidence that exposure components may not be advantageous when treating PTSD via the Internet.

Conference

English

Jay Spence

Spence, J. ( 2012, October). Internet based treatments for post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Can eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) be delivered via the internet and is exposure necessary for internet‐based cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT)for PTSD? Poster presented at the 28th Annual Meeting of the International Socitey for Traumatic Stress Studies, Los Angeles, CA