Does EMDR Therapy Have an Effect on Memories of Emotional Abuse, Neglect and Other Types of Adverse Events in Patients with a Personality Disorder? Preliminary Data
Open accessAbstract
Background: Little is known about the effectiveness of trauma-focused therapies for memories of events not meeting the A-criterion of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Objective: Determining the effect of EMDR therapy on memories of emotional abuse, neglect and other types of adverse events in patients with a personality disorder (PD). Method: We conducted a secondary analysis of the data from our study, which aimed to determine the effectiveness of five sessions of EMDR therapy in 49 patients with a PD. Patients were divided into three different groups depending on their most prevalent type of adverse event. Data were analyzed with Generalized Estimating Equations. Results: Of all patients, 49% reported emotional neglect, 22.4% emotional abuse and 26.5% other types. Only one patient reported memories that predominantly fulfilled the A-criterion of PTSD. After five sessions of EMDR therapy, medium to large treatment effects for memories related to neglect (ds between 0.52 and 0.79), medium treatment effects for memories involving emotional abuse (ds between 0.18 and 0.59) and other types of adverse events were found (ds between 0.18 and 0.53). No significant differences in symptom reduction associated with the application of EMDR therapy among memories involving these three different types of adverse events could be revealed. Conclusions: The results support the notion that EMDR therapy is not only an effective therapy for memories related to A-criteria-worthy events, but that it also has a symptom-reducing effect on memories involving other types of adverse events. This suggests that EMDR might be a valuable addition to the treatment of PD without PTSD.
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EMDR therapy has the potential to treat a variety of psychological conditions, including personality disorders that do not involve PTSD.
“Further research indicates that EMDR therapy has the potential to treat a variety of psychological conditions, including personality disorders that do not involve PTSD [81,82].”
From Clinical Efficacy of Psychotherapeutic Interventions for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Analysis. (2024) · cites this paper as [81]
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- Authors
- Hafkemeijer, L., Starrenburg, A., van der Palen, J., Slotema, K., & de Jongh, A.
- Affiliations
- GGZ Delfland (NL)
- Department of Research Methodology, Measurement and Data Analysis, University of Twente, 7522 NB Enschede, The Netherlands
- Parnassia Groep (NL)
- Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA), University of Amsterdam and VU University, 1012 WX Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Corresponding author
- Hafkemeijer, Laurian
- Venue
- Journal of Clinical Medicine
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2021-09-23
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 19
- Pages
- 4333
- ISSN
- 2077-0383 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8509145
- OpenAlex
- W3200830303
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 1.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Clinical Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (Queen's University Belfast) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- University of Twente Research Information (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- Worcester Research and Publications (University of Worcester) (acceptedVersion)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RePub (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- University of Twente Research Information (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- EMDR, personality disorders, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, adverse childhood experiences, trauma-focused psychotherapy, memory processes, post-traumatic stress disorder, treatment effects
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