The potential role of EMDR on trauma in affective disorders: A narrative review
Few available evidence suggests EMDR as a useful therapy in the treatment of bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder.
Article Abstract
“Background: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapeutic approach that has originally been developed to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Recently it has been suggested as a complementary therapy in a wide range of clinical conditions. In particular, affective disorders as bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) have a higher lifetime prevalence of traumatic or stressful life events (SLEs) compared to the general population, which makes them good candidates for the application of EMDR.
Methods: A bibliographic search on PUBMED, Scopus, and ScienceDirect of studies applying EMDR to people with a primary diagnosis of bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) (with or without a comorbid PTSD) was conducted.
Results: Literature search retrieved 15 studies, of which 3 were focused on BD and 12 on MDD. Overall, they suggest EMDR as an effective tool in reducing trauma-related but also manic and depressive symptoms, with few effect sides and high adherence rates.
Limitations: Few small studies exist with heterogeneous and not gold-standard methodology, especially for BD.
Conclusions: Overall, retrieved studies can be considered as first attempts at investigating the applicability of EMDR in affective disorders. Although far to be conclusive, preliminary evidence suggests EMDR as a useful adjunctive approach in the treatment of BD and MDD, especially when other treatments have failed. It is now the time to implement such trauma-focused therapy to larger samples of patients using more rigorous methods.”
—Description from publisher
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Perlini, C., Donisi, V., Rossetti, M. F., Moltrasio, C., Bellani, M., & Brambilla, P. (2020). The potential role of EMDR on trauma in affective disorders: A narrative review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 269(15), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.03.001
Date
May 15, 2020
Creator(s)
Cinzia Perlini, Valeria Donisi, Maria Gloria Rossetti
Contributor(s)
Chiara Moltrasio, Marcella Bellani, Paolo Brambilla
Topics
Bipolar Disorder, Depression
Extent
11 pages
Publisher
Elsevier
Rights
© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
APA Citation
Perlini, C., Donisi, V., Rossetti, M. F., Moltrasio, C., Bellani, M., & Brambilla, P. (2020). The potential role of EMDR on trauma in affective disorders: A narrative review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 269(15), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.03.001
Audience
EMDR Therapists, Other Mental Health Professionals
Language
English
Content Type
Article, Peer-Reviewed
Access Type
External Resource