The Effectiveness Of Eye Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing (EMDR) On Iraqi Child War Victims With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) In Baghdad

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Date
2011
Authors
Wadaa, Najlaa N.
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Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder following a serious traumatic event that causes three clusters of symptoms: re-experiencing, avoidance and hyperarosal for survivors. Many Iraqi children have developed traumatic symptoms following the exposure to the current war. Their lives are filled with pain and distress; hence, there is an acute need to explore an effective treatment for the traumatized children. One such treatment is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which is approved and recommended by professionals as an empirically supported method of treatment for PTSD. The primary purpose of the present study was to identify the effectiveness of EMDR in reducing symptoms of PTSD in Iraqi children. Also, it examined the relationships between PTSD symptoms and other variables such as age, gender and parental trauma-attachment beliefs. The participants of the present study were 300 Iraqi children (ages 7-12). UCLA PTSD INDEX for DSM-IV (Parent Version, Revision 1) (Rodriguez et al., 1998) was used to measure PTSD symptoms in Iraqi children. Further, 200 children’s parents were recruited to determine their trauma-attachment beliefs in Phase 2. Two instruments were used for assessing children’s reactions to EMDR: the Subject Unit Disturbance Scale (SUD) and the Validity of Cognition Scale (VOC). In Phase 3, 50 children who were diagnosed with PTSD but had never received any treatment were divided randomly into two groups: control and experimental. The results showed a high prevalence of PTSD symptoms (78%) among the child participants. There was no correlation between PTSD symptoms and gender, t(298) = .57, p = .57, but a two-tailed bivariate Pearson's Correlation test (r = .26, p < .01) indicated there was a correlation between PTSD symptoms and age: Older children showed more PTSD symptoms than younger children.
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Keywords
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing , empirically supported method of treatment for PTSD
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