Katrina L Boterhoven de Haan1, Christopher W Lee1, Eva Fassbinder2, Saskia M van Es3, Simone Menninga4, Marie-Louise Meewisse5, Marleen Rijkeboer6, Margriet Kousemaker7, Arnoud Arntz8. 1. Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Australia. 2. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Lübeck, Germany. 3. PsyQ Amsterdam, Parnassia Group, the Netherlands. 4. PsyQ Beverwijk, Parnassia Group, the Netherlands. 5. Abate, Centre of Expertise in Anxiety and Psychotrauma, the Netherlands. 6. Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, the Netherlands. 7. Amstelveen, Sinai Centrum, the Netherlands. 8. Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
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.
RCT Entities:
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.
Entities:
Keywords:
Post-traumatic stress disorder; childhood trauma; eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing; imagery rescripting; psychotherapy
Authors: Arne van den End; Jack Dekker; Aartjan T F Beekman; Inga Aarts; Aishah Snoek; Matthijs Blankers; Chris Vriend; Odile A van den Heuvel; Kathleen Thomaes Journal: Front Psychiatry Date: 2021-03-19 Impact factor: 4.157