Changes in psychosis, depression, self-esteem and social functioning as a consequence of psychological treatment of comorbid PTSD in patients with psychosis

EMDR and Prolonged Exposure are equally effective in treating PTSD, despite fundamental differences. For instance: in EMDR patients bring up their memory and look at it from a here-and-now perspective, but during Exposure patients are encouraged to relive the incident in detail as if it was actually happening in the here-and-now. Studying patterns of change in the course of treatment may reveal insight in the agents of change of both interventions.

In the TTIP study, 108 patients with a psychotic disorder and comorbid PTSD are randomised to Prolonged Exposure therapy or EMDR. Potential mediators like posttraumatic cognitions and self-esteem are assessed pre-, halfway and post-treatment. An adopted version of the Memory Characteristics Questionnaire (Hagenaars et al., 2009) is administered four times in the course of treatment: at the beginning and end of session 2, the beginning of session 3 and the end of session 8.

EMDR and Prolonged Exposure are equally effective in treating PTSD in a population with psychosis. However, conditions are strikingly different in the timing and extent to which changes occur, supporting the existence of different working mechanisms.

In this lecture data will be presented and both similarities and differences in patterns of change will be discussed in light of theories on working mechanisms.

Conference

English

Paul de Bont

de Bont, P. (2014, June). Changes in psychosis, depression, self-esteem and social functioning as a consequence of psychological treatment of comorbid PTSD in patients with psychosis. EMDR research symposium (Netherlands track) (Ad de Jongh, Chair). Symposium presented at the 15th EMDR Europe Association Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland