Effects of an EMDR Intervention on Traumatic and Obsessive Symptoms (MDL)

University of Pisa

Status: Completed

Conditions: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; Post-traumatic Stress Disorder; Adult ALL; Guilt; Disgust; Shame

Treatments: Behavioral: EMDR

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06110702

MDL-01

Details and patient eligibility

About

The Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Protocol (EMDR) was first developed by Francine Shapiro in 1987 and can be adapted for online and in presence administration. The aim of this study is to assess if a EMDR program (administered both online and in presence, depending on different conditions of patients) may help people recruited from general population suffering from COVID19 second (November 2021 to February 2022) and third (March 2022 to May 2022) quarantine in improving post-traumatic stress (PTSD) and obsessive-compulsive-related (OCD) symptoms, as well as disgust, guilt, shame and their subjective unit of distress (SUD) and validity of cognition (VoC) levels.

Enrollment: 287 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 75 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Participants aged 18 to 75 years
2. Participants experienced a full COVID19 pandemic-related quarantine during red zones of the second and third lockdowns in Italy
3. Participants have reasonable comprehension of spoken and written Italian language
4. Participants have an adequate understanding of Italian

Exclusion criteria

1. Concurrent enrollment in other intervention trials
2. Participants that already experienced EMDR therapy in the past

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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287 participants in 2 patient groups

8-week EMDR Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Phase 1: The therapist and client develop a secure working relationship. The client's history is discussed and a treatment plan is developed. Phase 2: The therapist explains the EMDR therapy process. Phase 3: The target event is identified. Baseline measures are set using the Subjective Units of Disturbance (SUD) and the Validity of Cognition (VOC) scale. Phase 4: Desensitization, sounds, or taps are begun while focusing on the traumatic event until the client's SUD reduces to zero. Phase 5: The client associates and strengthens a positive belief with the target event until it feels true. Phase 6: The client is asked to hold in mind the target event and the positive belief while scanning the body. Phase 7: Reprocessing is complete when the client feels neutral about it (SUD=0, VOC=7), and the body is clear of disturbance. Phase 8: The client and therapist discuss processed memories to ensure that distress is low and that the positive cognition is strong.

Treatment:

Behavioral: EMDR

Control condition - No intervention

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group will follow routine daily activities