Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) in patients with a personality disorder
The results suggest that EMDR therapy can be beneficial in the treatment of patients with personality disorders.
Article Abstract
“Background: Little is known about the effects of targeting memories of adverse (childhood) events in people with a personality disorder (PD).
Objective: Determining the effectiveness of brief EMDR therapy in individuals with PD.
Method: In a randomized-controlled trial, 97 outpatients with a PD as main diagnosis were allocated to either five (90 minutes) sessions of EMDR therapy (n = 51) or a waiting list (WL) control condition (n = 46) followed by 3 months of treatment as usual for their PD. Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were excluded. Measurements were performed on psychological symptoms, psychological distress, and personality dysfunctioning. Outcomes were compared at baseline, post-treatment, and at 3-month follow up. Data were analysed as intent-to-treat with linear mixed models.
Results: EMDR therapy yielded significant improvements with medium to large effect sizes for the primary outcomes after treatment, i.e. psychological symptoms (EMDR: d =.42; control group: d =.07), psychological distress (EMDR: d =.69; control group: d =.29), and personality functioning (EMDR: d =.41; control group: d = −.10) within groups. At 3-month follow-up, after 3 months of TAU, improvements were maintained. Significant differences were found between both groups regarding all outcome measures in favour of the EMDR group at post-treatment (ds between −.62 and −.65), and at follow-up, after 3 months of TAU (ds between −.45 and −.53).
Conclusions: The results suggest that EMDR therapy can be beneficial in the treatment of patients with PDs. More rigorous outcome research examining long-term effects and using a longer treatment track is warranted.”
—Description from publisher
Article Access
Open Access
Hafkemeijer, L., de Jongh, A., van der Palen, J., & Starrenburg, A. (2020). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) in patients with a personality disorder. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 11: 1838777. Open access: https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2020.1838777
Date
November 19, 2020
Creator(s)
Laurian Hafkemeijer, Ad de Jongh, Job van der Palen
Contributor(s)
Annemieke Starrenburg
Topics
Personality Disorders
Extent
10 pages
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Rights
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
APA Citation
Hafkemeijer, L., de Jongh, A., van der Palen, J., & Starrenburg, A. (2020). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) in patients with a personality disorder. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 11: 1838777. Open access: https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2020.1838777
Audience
EMDR Therapists, Other Mental Health Professionals
Language
English
Content Type
Article, Peer-Reviewed, RCT
Access Type
External Resource, Open Access
