The influence of trauma type on the distress during EMDR, and the relationship between the distress during EMDR and the total treatment effect of an intensive outpatient treatment program

Although the goal of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) for the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is to lower the distress experienced regarding a traumatic memory, limited studies are done on the relationship between the change of distress during EMDR therapy and the total treatment effect. Current study contributes to this limited knowledge available by studying the possible influence that different trauma types could have on the change of distress during EMDR therapy. In addition to this, current study researched the relationship between the change of distress and total treatment effect, and the relationship between the amount of traumatic memories that are fully relieved of distress during the EMDR and the total treatment effect. Results of current study showed no significant differences between trauma types on the change of distress, indicating that trauma type does not influence the change of distress during EMDR therapy. Results did however show a significant positive relationship between the change of distress and the total treatment effect. In addition to this a significant positive relationship was found between the amount of traumatic memories that were fully relieved of distress during the EMDR therapy sessions and the total treatment effect. These results indicate that the distress experienced during EMDR could be a marker for the total treatment effectiveness and therefore could also be an indication for change within the treatment if improvement regarding the distress is lacking. Although these results are valuable, they are based upon a treatment program that consisted multiple trauma focussed interventions. The total treatment effect is therefore not only explained by EMDR. Further research should focus on more fitting differentiation between trauma types, bigger sample sizes of the more uncommon trauma types and EMDR as stand alone treatment.

Dissertation/Thesis

English

P. T. van der Post

van der Post, P. T. (2021). The influence of trauma type on the distress during EMDR, and the relationship between the distress during EMDR and the total treatment effect of an intensive outpatient treatment program. (Master's thesis, University of Utrecht)