Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) treatment on female patients with somatic depression
Description
Background:
Unprocessed memories of negative life events or psychological trauma might be related to a high level of physical arousal and be stored as a variety of significant somatic symptoms, especially among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) who are called “somatic depression” as a subtype of MDD. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy could rapidly treat unprocessed memories of adverse experiences or trauma. Thus, this primary study aims to explore the effect of short-term EMDR therapy in patients with somatic depression.
Method:
Twenty female patients with MDD, reporting at least three of the following symptoms: disordered eating, poor body image, insomnia, fatigue, headaches, and unexplained breathing difficulty, were randomly divided into two groups. Age, education, and severity of depression were matched in two groups. The intervention group received twelve 90-minute sessions of EMDR in addition to escitalopram medication, the control group received escitalopram medication as usual. Eight sessions of EMDR therapy were conducted semiweekly in an inpatient setting. The other four EMDR therapies were conducted every week after discharge. The pre- and post-treatment measurements were assessed at the 4th week and the 8th week.
Results:
This primary study indicated that after treatment the EMDR group had a greater improvement of depressive and anxiety symptoms (measured by HAMD & HAMA score), less feeling of pain (measured by visual pain analogue scale, VAS) than the control both after four and eight weeks.
Conclusions:
EMDR approach shows to be an encouraging, non-invasive, and effective psychological treatment for major depressive disorder with somatic symptomology. Large scale samples and male MDD patients are needed to participate such research
Unprocessed memories of negative life events or psychological trauma might be related to a high level of physical arousal and be stored as a variety of significant somatic symptoms, especially among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) who are called “somatic depression” as a subtype of MDD. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy could rapidly treat unprocessed memories of adverse experiences or trauma. Thus, this primary study aims to explore the effect of short-term EMDR therapy in patients with somatic depression.
Method:
Twenty female patients with MDD, reporting at least three of the following symptoms: disordered eating, poor body image, insomnia, fatigue, headaches, and unexplained breathing difficulty, were randomly divided into two groups. Age, education, and severity of depression were matched in two groups. The intervention group received twelve 90-minute sessions of EMDR in addition to escitalopram medication, the control group received escitalopram medication as usual. Eight sessions of EMDR therapy were conducted semiweekly in an inpatient setting. The other four EMDR therapies were conducted every week after discharge. The pre- and post-treatment measurements were assessed at the 4th week and the 8th week.
Results:
This primary study indicated that after treatment the EMDR group had a greater improvement of depressive and anxiety symptoms (measured by HAMD & HAMA score), less feeling of pain (measured by visual pain analogue scale, VAS) than the control both after four and eight weeks.
Conclusions:
EMDR approach shows to be an encouraging, non-invasive, and effective psychological treatment for major depressive disorder with somatic symptomology. Large scale samples and male MDD patients are needed to participate such research
Format
Conference
Language
English
Original Work Citation
Chen, Y. (2017, April). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) treatment on female patients with somatic depression. In research symposium (Daeho Kim, Chair). Presentation at the 3rd EMDR Asia International Conference, Shanghai, China
Citation
“Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) treatment on female patients with somatic depression,” Francine Shapiro Library, accessed May 5, 2024, https://francineshapirolibrary.omeka.net/items/show/24408.