EMOTIONAL PROCESSING DURING EYE-MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION AND REPROCESSING THERAPY OF VIETNAM VETERANS WITH CHRONIC POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER

This study examined emotional processing and outcome in 17 Vietnam vet erans with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who underwent eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, with and without the eye movement component, in a crossover design. Results su pported the occurrence of partial emotional processing, but there were no differences in its extent in the eye movement versus eyes-fixed co nditions. Therapy produced a modest to moderate overall improvement. m ostly on the Impact of Event Scale, There was slightly more improvemen t in the eyes-fixed than eye-movement condition. There was little asso ciation between the extent of emotional processing and therapeutic out come. In our hands, EMDR was at least as efficacious for combat-relate d PTSD as imaginal flooding proved to be in a previous study, and was better tolerated by subjects. However, results suggest that eye moveme nts do not play a significant role in processing of traumatic informat ion in EMDR and that factors other than eye movements are responsible for EMDR's therapeutic effect.