How to heal their psychological wounds? Effectiveness of EMDR therapy on post‐traumatic stress symptoms, mind‐wandering and suicidal ideation in Iranian child abuse victims

Child abuse is increasingly known to be a risk factor for health in children across any nationality worldwide. Studies in this area have shown that child abuse, as a traumatic event, can lead to symptoms of PTSD, mind‐wandering and also suicidal ideation in adulthood. Although studies have shown significant effects of EMDR on a reduction in psychological symptoms in individuals with a history of trauma, further studies are needed regarding the specific effect of this treatment on reducing PTSD symptoms, suicidal ideations and mind‐wandering in female victims of child abuse. The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of EMDR therapy on reducing PTSD symptoms, suicidal ideations and mind‐wandering in female victims of child abuse. Thirty female victims were assigned to either EMDR or waiting list control in a randomised, double‐blind trial. The participants in the EMDR group attended eight twice‐weekly sessions. The participants were examined in pre‐test and post‐test with Civilian Mississippi Scale for PTSD (CMS), Child Abuse and Self‐Report Scale (CASRS), Mind‐Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ), Beck Scale for suicidal ideation (BSSI) and Brief Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES‐B). Results of multivariate analysis of covariance showed that EMDR had a significant effect on reducing PTSD symptoms with an effect size of 0.72, suicidal ideations with an effect size of 0.53, and mind‐wandering with an effect size of 0.19. It can be concluded that this treatment is effective in improving PTSD, suicidal ideations and mind‐wandering in female victims of child abuse.

Journal

English

Fateme Jamshidi
Soran Rajabi
Yousef Dehghani

Jamshidi, F., Rajabi, S., & Dehghani, Y. (2021, June). How to heal their psychological wounds? Effectiveness of EMDR therapy on post‐traumatic stress symptoms, mind‐wandering and suicidal ideation in Iranian child abuse victims. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 21(2), 412-421. doi:10.1002/capr.12339