Randomized Controlled Trial: EMDR Early Intervention With and Without Eye Movements for Learned Helplessness State

Abstract

Learned helplessness (LH) is considered a psychological trait, which occurs after repeated exposure to aversive and uncontrollable situations (Seligman, 1975). Such an exposure is found to lead motivational, cognitive, and emotional deficits. LH has also been linked to different psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and trauma-related depression. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy has been accepted as an efficacious treatment for PTSD, but evidence for its effectiveness as an early intervention is still preliminary. Also, there is some uncertainty regarding the role of eye movements in EMDR. The current randomized controlled study investigated whether a single 15-minute session of EMDR's Recent Traumatic Episode Protocol (R-TEP) could reduce the effects of laboratory-induced LH. The study further investigated whether R-TEP without eye movements would have the same effect. Using established experimental tasks, an LH state was induced via unsolvable maze tasks with effects measured by the participants' performance in solving anagrams. Results revealed that an LH state was successfully induced by the unsolvable mazes. R-TEP effectively reversed the negative effects of the LH state and was significantly more effective than no treatment controls and the R-TEP condition without eye movements, which was essentially a narrative exposure intervention. Results suggest that R-TEP can be successfully administered immediately following a distressful event, and that eye movements appear to be a necessary component of EMDR in reversing the cognitive, motivational, and/or emotional deficits induced by LH.

Emotionally valenced and modality-specific dual tasks: Effects on voluntary reminding and proactive interference in trauma-exposed individuals suffering from PTSD.

“…Therefore, memory becomes less distressing, which, based on several studies (e.g., van den Hout et al, 2012), is then reconsolidated in a less disturbing form (Shapiro, 2017). Recent studies have shown the importance of the EM component in reducing the vividness and emotionality of unpleasant memories (Onderdonk & van den Hout, 2016; van Veen et al, 2016) and also the necessity of the EM component in reversing the emotional deficits induced by an acute stress reaction (Egĕci & Özgün, 2019). Moreover, Landin-Romero et al (2018) studied the suggested mechanisms of action in EMDR treatment in a systematic review and provided a reasonable empirical support for the physiological changes following successful EMDR treatment.…”

The effect of twice-weekly versus once-weekly sessions of either imagery rescripting or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing for adults with PTSD from childhood trauma (IREM-Freq): a study protocol for an international randomized clinical trial

“…Learned helplessness refers to a pattern of thoughts and behavior instigated by repeated or intense, uncontrollable adverse events, that increases the likelihood of psychopathology, especially depression [ 138 ]. This study aims to build on earlier analyses investigating the impact of trauma-focused treatments on levels of learned helplessness [ 139 ]. Further, the role of learned helplessness as a possible mediator of change, especially for participants who have a comorbid depression diagnosis, will be investigated.…”