Imagery rescripting and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing as treatment for adults with post-traumatic stress disorder from childhood trauma: randomised clinical trial

Katrina L Boterhoven de Haan*, Christopher W Lee, Eva Fassbinder, Saskia M van Es, Simone Menninga, Marie-Louise Meewisse, Marleen Rijkeboer, Margriet Kousemaker, Arnoud Arntz

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Investigation of treatments that effectively treat adults with post-traumatic stress disorder from childhood experiences (Ch-PTSD) and are well tolerated by patients is needed to improve outcomes for this population.

AIMS: The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two trauma-focused treatments, imagery rescripting (ImRs) and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR), for treating Ch-PTSD.

METHOD: We conducted an international, multicentre, randomised clinical trial, recruiting adults with Ch-PTSD from childhood trauma before 16 years of age. Participants were randomised to treatment condition and assessed by blind raters at multiple time points. Participants received up to 12 90-min sessions of either ImRs or EMDR, biweekly.

RESULTS: A total of 155 participants were included in the final intent-to-treat analysis. Drop-out rates were low, at 7.7%. A generalised linear mixed model of repeated measures showed that observer-rated post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms significantly decreased for both ImRs (d = 1.72) and EMDR (d = 1.73) at the 8-week post-treatment assessment. Similar results were seen with secondary outcome measures and self-reported PTSD symptoms. There were no significant differences between the two treatments on any standardised measure at post-treatment and follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS: ImRs and EMDR treatments were found to be effective in treating PTSD symptoms arising from childhood trauma, and in reducing other symptoms such as depression, dissociation and trauma-related cognitions. The low drop-out rates suggest that the treatments were well tolerated by participants. The results from this study provide evidence for the use of trauma-focused treatments for Ch-PTSD.

Original languageEnglish
Article number0007125020001580
Pages (from-to)609-615
Number of pages7
JournalBritish Journal of Psychiatry
Volume217
Issue number5
Early online date7 Sept 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2020

Keywords

  • COMPLEX PTSD
  • EMDR
  • MEMORIES
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder
  • RELIABILITY
  • SURVIVORS
  • VALIDITY
  • childhood trauma
  • eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing
  • imagery rescripting
  • psychotherapy

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