The Relation Between The Symptoms Characteristics Of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD) And The Efficacy Of Eye Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing(EMDR)

Object: 1. Conducting a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials(RCTs) published abroad to confirm the effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing(EMDR) for adult post traumatic stress disorder(PTSD).2. Conducing a RCT to research the effect of EMDR on PTSD symptoms, anxiety, and depression of PTSD patients.Methods: 1. We searched Medline, Pubmed, Ebsco, Proquest, and Cochrane(1989 to 2013) to identify relevant RCTs comparing EMDR group and control group for PTSD. We used Review Management(Rev Man) 5.0 and Stata 12.0 to conduct meta analyses.2. A total of 54 PTSD patients were randomly allocated to EMDR group, and control group(27 participates per group). All the patients were assessed by blind raters at pre- and post-treatment with Clinician-administered PTSD Scale(CAPS), Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Check-list-Civilian Version(PCL-C), Hamilton Anxiety Scale(HAMA) and Hamilton Depression Scale(HAMD).Results: 1.We included 10 studies(N = 400). Although all the studies had methodological limitations, meta-analyses for total PTSD scores, PTSD intrusion, PTSD avoidance, and PTSD arousal revealed that EMDR was superior to control group(SMD=-0.98, 95%CI:-1.31~-0.66; SMD=-1.17, 95%CI:-1.59~-0.76; SMD=-1.65, 95%CI:-2.10~-1.21; SMD=-1.58, 95%CI:-2.02~-1.14).2. Drop-out rates between the two groups were 29.6% for EMDR group, and 7.4% for control group. Data were analyzed as intent to treat with paired sample t test and repetitive measure analysis of variance. In general, there were significant pre-post reductions for EMDR group(P<0.001) but no change for the control group. After excluding the pharmacotherapies interference, EMDR group showed greater reduction in CAPS hyperarousal(P=0.005) and CAPS total score(P=0.021) comparison to control group.Conclusions: 1. EMDR can effectively improve the PTSD symptoms(including intrusion, avoidance, and arousal) of PTSD patients;2. There is no obvious change in PTSD symptoms, anxiety, and depression of the PTSD patients in control group between pre- and post- treatment.