Eye movement desensitization: A partial dismantling study

The efficacy and psychophysiological correlates of dual-attention tasks in eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)

“…Boudewyns, Stwertka, & Hyer, 1993;Montgomery & Ayllon, 1994), findings of several studies contradict ours by demonstrating that EMDR-with or -without eye movements leads to significant positive, but equivalent treatment effects (Pitman et al,1996;Renfrey & Spates, 1994;Sanderson & Carpenter, 1992). To date, research that has compared EMDR-with EMs to EMDR-without EMs has been difficult to interpret due to methodological issues.…”

“…In addition, research has often used small sample sizes, and treatment dose has varied between conditions (i.e. Renfrey & Spates, 1994).…”

A meta-analysis of the contribution of eye movements in processing emotional memories

“…Thirteen studies used self report of distress Subjective Units of Discomfort Scale (SUDS) as an outcome measure and five studies used additional measures relevant to the population group they were treating. For example the Body Sensations Questionnaire (BSQ) was used in assessing response to treatment for panic disorder (Feske & Goldstein, 1997), the Mississippi Scale for Combat-related PTSD (MSCR), the Impact of Events Scale (IES) or the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) was used for people with PTSD (Boudewyns et al 1993) and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) or the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) was used to assess the levels of anxiety (Devilly et al 1998;Renfrey & Spates, 1994).…”

“…The treatment studies that have attempted to isolate the eye movement component from the full treatment package have produced results ranging from a very large effect size consistent with eye movements enhancing processing (Wilson et al 1996) to findings of no differences (Renfrey & Spates, 1994). On the other hand, non-clinical laboratory studies that investigated the effects of eye movements on autobiographical memories have found decreases in vividness and/or emotionality compared to control conditions such as finger tapping (van den Hout et al 2001), spatial tapping (Andrade et al 1997), and no eye movement (Kavanagh et al 2001;Barrowcliff et al 2004;Gunter & Bodner, 2008).…”

Empirically supported individual and group psychological treatments for adult mental disorders.

“…A dismantling study conducted by Renfrey and Spates (1994) gives substance to the view that EMDR may simply be one of many ways of conducting guided exposure treatment. PTSD patients were randomly assigned to EMDR or an imaginal exposure condition in which they were asked to focus on a fixed stimulus.…”