The Efficacy of Eye Movement Desensitization Repreocessing (EMDR) in the Treatment of Depression

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to investigate the efficacy of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) psychotherapy in treating depression caused due to trauma experienced in the past or present, and that was affecting the quality of life. It was hypothesized that there would be significant reduction in the level of depressive and trauma symptoms of the participants after taking Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Treatment and the quality of life of participants would improve. A sample of 26 participants was purposively taken from psychiatric referrals and mental health clinical settings and was assigned randomly to treatment and waiting list control groups after they were screened for dissociative symptoms through Dissociative Experience Scale- II (Bernstein & Putnam, 1986). Dissociative Experience Scale- II (Bernstein & Putnam, 1986) used for screening purpose only. Participants scoring higher than 35 on Dissociative Experience Scale- II (Bernstein & Putnam, 1986) were not included in the study. The age limit for the particular sample was from 18 to 60 years and their educational level was was metric onwards. Beck Depression Inventory (Beck & Brown 1996), Trauma Symptom Checklist (Briere & Runtz, 1989) and Quality of Life Index Inventory (Ferrans & Powel, 1984) were used to measure, depressive symptoms trauma symptoms, and quality of life of the participants. Paired sampled t-test and independent sample t-test were applied using SPSS to analyse the data statistically. The results of the study supported the research hypothesis at 95% confidence interval and found EMDR as an effective treatment for significantly reducing depressive symptoms experienced due to past or present trauma. The quality of the life of the participants also improved as a result of diminished depressive and trauma symptoms.