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 language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | British Journal of Psychiatry |
| Volume | 217 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| Pages (from-to) | 609-615 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| ISSN | 0007-1250 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 01.11.2020 |
Funding
K.L.B.d.H. received financial support from the Anxiety Disorders Foundation of Western Australia (ref: PG51012100), and C.W.L. received financial support from the EMDR Research Foundation (ref: PG10400309). Financial support was also received from the Commonwealth Government, through an ‘Australian Government Research Training Program Fees Offset’. C.W.L. reports grants from the EMDR Research Foundation, during the conduct of the study; and personal fees from Psychology Training, outside the submitted work. A.A. publishes about ImRs in scientific articles and book chapters, and occasionally gives workshops on this treatment. The financial remuneration he receives goes to the University of Amsterdam to support research. E.F. reports personal fees from workshops and lectures on ImRs and PTSD treatment, and grants from the University of Lübeck (Habiliationsförderung für Wissenschaftlerinnen, Sektion Medizin), outside the submitted work. The remaining authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Research Areas and Centers
- Academic Focus: Center for Brain, Behavior and Metabolism (CBBM)
