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Neurobiological features and response to eye movement desensitization and reprocessing treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in patients with breast cancer (European Journal of Psychotraumatology)

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Home / Resources / Medical/Somatic / Cancer / Neurobiological features and response to eye movement desensitization and reprocessing treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in patients with breast cancer (European Journal of Psychotraumatology)

Neurobiological features and response to eye movement desensitization and reprocessing treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in patients with breast cancer

EMDR compared to treatment as usual in breast cancer patients with PTSD through electroencephalography (EEG) & neurophysiological change.


Article Abstract

“Background: Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most common invasive types of cancer among women, with important consequences on both physical and psychological functioning. Patients with BC have a great risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but few studies have evaluated the efficacy of psychological interventions to treat it. Furthermore, no neuroimaging studies have evaluated the neurobiological effects of psychotherapeutic treatment for BC-related PTSD.

Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR) as compared to Treatment as Usual (TAU) in BC patients with PTSD, identifying by electroencephalography (EEG) the neurophysiological changes underlying treatments effect and their correlation with clinical symptoms.

Method: Thirty patients with BC and PTSD diagnosis were included, receiving either EMDR (n = 15) or TAU (n = 15). Patients were assessed before and after treatments with clinical questionnaires and EEG. The proportion of patients who no longer meet criteria for PTSD after the intervention and changes in clinical scores, both between and within groups, were evaluated. Two-sample permutation t-tests among EEG channels were performed to investigate differences in power spectral density between groups. Pearson correlation analysis was carried out between power bands and clinical scores.

Results: At post-treatment, all patients treated with EMDR no longer met criteria for PTSD, while all patients treated with TAU maintained the diagnosis. A significant decrease in depressive symptoms was found only in the EMDR group, while anxiety remained stable in all patients. EEG results corroborated these findings, showing significant differences in delta and theta bands in left angular and right fusiform gyri only in the EMDR group.

Conclusions: It is essential to detect PTSD symptoms in patients with BC, in order to offer proper interventions. The efficacy of EMDR therapy in reducing cancer-related PTSD is supported by both clinical and neurobiological findings.

Highlights

  • In accordance with DSM-5 criteria, the prevalence of cancer-related PTSD diagnosis in our sample of women with breast cancer was 8.1%.
  • EMDR was significantly superior to TAU in reducing PTSD and associated depressive symptoms.
  • Clinical improvement following EMDR was associated with an increase in neuronal synchronization in left angular and in right fusiform gyri.”

—Description from publisher

Article Access

Open Access

Carletto, S., Porcaro, C., Settanta, C., Vizzari, V., Stanizzo, M. R., Oliva, F., & Torta, R., Fernandez, I., Coletti Moja, M., Pagani, M., & Ostacoli, L. Neurobiological features and response to eye movement desensitization and reprocessing treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in patients with breast cancer. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 10, 1600832. Open access: https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2019.1600832 

View the Resource
Basic Info Collapse

Date
March 14, 2019

Creator(s)
Sara Carletto, Camillo Porcaro, Carmen Settanta

Contributor(s)
Vincenzo Vizzari, Maria Rosa Stanizzo, Francesco Oliva, Riccardo Torta, Isabel Fernandez, Mario Coletti Moja, Marco Paganiuca, Luca Ostacoli

Topics
Cancer, Medical/Somatic, PTSD

Practice & Methods
Comparative Studies, Neurobiology

More Info Collapse

Extent
12 pages

Publisher
Taylor & Francis

Rights
© 2019 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
Carletto, S., Porcaro, C., Settanta, C., Vizzari, V., Stanizzo, M. R., Oliva, F., & Torta, R., Fernandez, I., Coletti Moja, M., Pagani, M., & Ostacoli, L. Neurobiological features and response to eye movement desensitization and reprocessing treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in patients with breast cancer. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 10, 1600832. Open access: https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2019.1600832

Audience
EMDR Therapists, Other Mental Health Professionals

Language
English

Content Type
Article, Peer-Reviewed

Access Type
External Resource, Open Access

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