The majority of people who experience mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) have a healthy recovery, where initial somatic, cognitive, psychological, and behavioral mTBI-related symptoms resolve naturally within hours or days. Unfortunately, a significant minority of people develop persistent post-concussion symptoms, sometimes referred to as persistent post-concussion syndrome (pPCS), often causing severe long-term reduction in well-being and daily function. Psychological and neuropsychological treatments are typically limited to antidepressants, psychoeducation on mTBI and pPCS, basic neurorehabilitative cognitive compensatory strategies, traditional cognitive behavioral therapy, or no treatment at all. This paper discusses a single case study which demonstrates how eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy might provide psychological improvement in clients who sustain mTBI and develop pPCS. The case example describes a 57-year-old man who sustained a mTBI from a serious road traffic collision as a pedestrian and who developed pPCS. Treatment included nine 1.5-hour EMDR sessions across a 5-month period (the first being an assessment). Measures of psychological symptom change and client feedback were taken at pretreatment, midtreatment, posttreatment, and aftertreatment had ceased to gauge long-term status. Measures were taken at 18-month follow-up and 4-year review (which followed litigation settlement). The novel viability for the application of EMDR for this client group isdiscussed.
Date
September 1, 2021
Creator(s)
Phil S. Moore
Topics
Traumatic Brain Injury
Extent
10 pages
Publisher
Springer Publishing Company
Rights
Copyright © 2021 EMDR International Association
APA Citation
Moore, P. S. (2021). Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 15(3), 157–166. https://doi.org/10.1891/EMDR-D-21-00015
Series
15
Installment
3
Audience
EMDR Therapists
Language
English
Content Type
Peer-Reviewed
Original Source
Journal of EMDR Practice and Research
Access Type
Open Access