ORCID
- Rohit Shankar: 0000-0002-1183-6933
Abstract
Background: People with severe mental illness are often excluded from trials related to Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. Principal concerns are that they may not tolerate treatment, might risk relapse or that psychotic symptoms may worsen. There is however building evidence of a traumatogenic etiology of psychotic disorder that may benefit therapeutically from EMDR. However, EMDR in this role is done mainly in specialist tertiary settings. Aim: To conduct a randomized exploratory trial of prospective treatment of EMDR for people with psychotic disorder and a history of trauma in an adult community mental health service. Methods: A randomized exploratory trial with a controlled pilot design was employed to conduct a prospective treatment and six-month follow-up study with an interim 10-week analysis in a rural county in the UK (population 538,000). We recruited participants with psychotic disorder who had a reported history of trauma and were interested in receiving trauma therapy. They were then randomized to either receive EMDR or treatment as usual (TAU). The primary instrument used was the Impact of Events Scale (IES) with secondary instruments of Positive and Negative Symptoms of Psychotic Disorder (PANSS), PTSD Checklist (PCL-C), and subjective Quality of Life (MANSA). Results: IES scores showed significant improvements in the EMDR group (n = 24, age 42.0 SD (14.5), 42% male) compared to the TAU group (n = 12, age 34.4 SD (11.3), 50% male) at 10 weeks and at six months (p < 0.05). There were significant improvements in PCL-C and PANSS negative symptoms scores associated with treatment (p < 0.05). All other scales showed positive trends. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that EMDR can reduce the impact of traumatic events for patients with a psychotic disorder in a clinical setting in the UK. The improvements in psychotic disorder persisted for six months after treatment. Trial registration: ISRCTN43816889.
DOI
10.1016/j.jpsychires.2023.11.024
Publication Date
2023-11-18
Publication Title
Journal of Psychiatric Research
Volume
169
ISSN
0022-3956
Keywords
EMDR, Psychotic disorder, Psychotic symptoms, Serious mental illness, Trauma
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
First Page
257
Last Page
263
Recommended Citation
Shankar, R., Marlow, S., Laugharne, R., Allard, J., Bassett, P., Priebe, S., Ledger, J., Kerr, J., Priest, D., Vanhoorn, A., & Boland, C. (2023) 'A pragmatic randomized controlled exploratory trial of the effectiveness of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy for psychotic disorder', Journal of Psychiatric Research, 169, pp. 257-263. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2023.11.024
