Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Versus Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Adult Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Abstract
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a relatively common mental disorder, with an estimated lifetime prevalence of ∼5.7%. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) are the most often studied and most effective psychotherapies for PTSD. However, evidence is inadequate to conclude which treatment is superior. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to confirm the effectiveness of EMDR compared to CBT for adult PTSD. We searched Medline, PubMed, Ebsco, Proquest, and Cochrane (1989-2013) to identify relevant randomized control trials comparing EMDR and CBT for PTSD. We included 11 studies (N = 424). Although all the studies had methodological limitations, meta-analyses for total PTSD scores revealed that EMDR was slightly superior to CBT. Cumulative meta-analysis confirmed this and a meta-analysis for subscale scores of PTSD symptoms indicated that EMDR was better for decreased intrusion and arousal severity compared to CBT. Avoidance was not significantly different between groups. EMDR may be more suitable than CBT for PTSD patients with prominent intrusion or arousal symptoms. However, the limited number and poor quality of the original studies included suggest caution when drawing final conclusions.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
EMDR is significantly more effective than CBT for PTSD, with a differential effect size of SMD = -0.43 and high heterogeneity (I2 = 75%).
“For example, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) has been found to be significantly more effective than CBT, with a differential effect size of SMD = -0.43 and with high heterogeneity (I 2 = 75%) (Chen et al. 2015).”
From The Role of Common Factors in Psychotherapy Outcomes (2019) · cites this paper as Chen et al. 2015
The inclusion of non-bona fide therapies cannot explain why EMDR has been found to be more effective than CBT in treating PTSD because both are bona fide therapies.
“However, this cannot explain why, for example, EMDR has been found to be more effective than CBT in treating PTSD (Chen et al. 2015) because both are bona fide therapies.”
From The Role of Common Factors in Psychotherapy Outcomes (2019) · cites this paper as Chen et al. 2015
Cites
CONSORT 2010 Statement: updated guidelines for reporting parallel group randomised trials
the CONSORT Group, Schulz, K. F., Altman, D. G., & Moher, D. (2010) · BMC Medicine · doi:10.1186/1741-7015-8-18 · Cited by 13,371 · see citing works
Liberati, A., Altman, D. G., Tetzlaff, J., Mulrow, C., Gøtzsche, P. C., Ioannidis, J. P. A., Clarke, M., Devereaux, P. J., Kleijnen, J., & Moher, D. (2009) · Annals of Internal Medicine · doi:10.7326/0003-4819-151-4-200908180-00136 · Cited by 10,349 · see citing works
Meta-analysis of risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder in trauma-exposed adults
Brewin, C. R., Andrews, B., & Valentine, J. D. (2000) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.68.5.748 · Cited by 5,243 · see citing works
Kessler, R. C., Petukhova, M., Sampson, N. A., Zaslavsky, A. M., & Wittchen, H. (2012) · International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1002/mpr.1359 · Cited by 2,947 · cited 1× · see citing works
“PTSD is now a common mental disorder, with an estimated lifetime prevalence of ~5.7% (Kessler et al., 2012).”
BackgroundInfluentialResick, P. A., Nishith, P., Weaver, T. L., Astin, M. C., & Feuer, C. A. (2002) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.70.4.867 · Cited by 1,294 · see citing works
Bryant, R. A., Moulds, M. L., Guthrie, R. M., Dang, S. T., & Nixon, R. D. V. (2003) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.71.4.706 · Cited by 325 · see citing works
Association Between Analytic Strategy and Estimates of Treatment Outcomes in Meta-analyses
Dechartres, A., Altman, D. G., Trinquart, L., Boutron, I., & Ravaud, P. (2014) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.2014.8166 · Cited by 233 · see citing works
Power, K., McGoldrick, T., Brown, K., Buchanan, R., Sharp, D., Swanson, V., & Karatzias, A. (2002) · Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy · doi:10.1002/cpp.341 · Cited by 203 · see citing works
Barrowcliff, A. L., Gray, N. S., Freeman, T. C., & MacCulloch, M. J. (2004) · Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology · doi:10.1080/14789940410001673042 · Cited by 189 · see citing works
Engelhard, I. M., van den Hout, M. A., Dek, E. C. P., Giele, C. L., van der Wielen, J.-W., Reijnen, M. J., & van Roij, B. (2011) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.01.009 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Role of Common Factors in Psychotherapy Outcomes
Cuijpers, P., Reijnders, M., & Huibers, M. J. H. (2019) · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050718-095424 · Cited by 748 · see citing works
Cuijpers, P., Veen, S. C. V., Sijbrandij, M., Yoder, W., & Cristea, I. A. (2020) · Cognitive Behaviour Therapy · doi:10.1080/16506073.2019.1703801 · Cited by 159 · see citing works
Wilson, G., Farrell, D., Barron, I., Hutchins, J., Whybrow, D., & Kiernan, M. D. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00923 · Cited by 145 · see citing works
Psychedelics and psychotherapy
Nayak, S., & Johnson, M. W. (2021) · Pharmacopsychiatry · doi:10.1055/a-1312-7297 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Yunitri, N., Kao, C.-C., Chu, H., Voss, J., Chiu, H.-L., Liu, D., Shen, S.-T. H., Chang, P.-C., Kang, X. L., & Chou, K.-R. (2020) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.01.005 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Vogel, A., & Rosner, R. (2020) · Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review · doi:10.1007/s10567-019-00305-0 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Rahimi, F., Rejeh, N., Bahrami, T., Heravi‐Karimooi, M., Tadrisi, S. D., Griffiths, P., & Vaismoradi, M. (2019) · Perspectives in Psychiatric Care · doi:10.1111/ppc.12389 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Szpringer, M., Oledzka, M., & Amann, B. L. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00785 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
- Authors
- Chen, L., Zhang, G., Hu, M., & Liang, X.
- Affiliations
- Shihezi University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Chen, Ling
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease
- Published
- 2015-06
- Volume
- 203
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 443-451
- ISSN
- 0022-3018 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W274033408
- Cited by
- 147
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 3
- FWCI
- 15.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Keywords
- post-traumatic stress disorder, EMDR, cognitive behavioral therapy, psychotherapy comparison, intrusion symptoms, arousal symptoms, avoidance symptoms, treatment effectiveness
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
