EMDR for Childhood PTSD After Road Traffic Accidents: Attentional, Memory, and Attributional Processes

Abstract

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) was used with 11 children who developed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after road traffic accidents. All improved such that none met criteria for PTSD on standardized assessments after an average of only 2.4 sessions. Significant improvements in PTSD, anxiety, and depression were found both immediately after treatment and at follow-up. Attentional, memory, and attributional processes associated with PTSD were assessed and their relationship to therapeutic change examined. Treatment was associated with a significant trauma-specific reduction in attentional bias on the modified Stroop task, with results apparent both immediately after therapy and at follow-up.