Fonte: Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, Volume 7, Number 3, 2013 , pp. 134-143 (10)

This pilot study examined the efficacy of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) treatment compared with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in oncology patients in the follow-up phase of the disease. The secondary aim of this study was to assess whether EMDR treatment has a different impact on PTSD in the active treatment or during the follow-up stages of disease. Twenty-one patients in follow-up care were randomly assigned to EMDR or CBT groups, and 10 patients in the active treatment phase were assigned to EMDR group. The Impact of Event Scale—Revised (IES-R) and Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) were used to assess PTSD at pretreatment and 1 month posttreatment. Anxiety, depression, and psychophysiological symptoms were also evaluated. For cancer patients in the follow-up stage, the absence of PTSD after the treatment was associated with a significantly higher likelihood of receiving EMDR rather than CBT. EMDR was significantly more effective than CBT in reducing scores on the IES-R and the CAPS intrusive symptom subscale, whereas anxiety and depression improved equally in both treatment groups. Furthermore, EMDR showed the same efficacy both in the active cancer treatment and during the follow-up of the disease.

Dall’ Editoriale a cura diAndrew M. Leeds

“The second article, from Liuva Capezzani et al., is the first controlled study of the EMDR treatment of cancer patients. Given the historic role that cancer played in Francine Shapiro’s transition from English literature to the study of psychology and to the development of EMDR (Luber & Shapiro, 2009, p. 218), and the presence of sections on the treatment of cancer patients in both the 1995 and 2001 editions of her text (Shapiro, 1995, 2001), this article represents an important mile stone. Capezzani et al. found that cancer patients in the follow-up stage of treatment, randomly assigned to EMDR or CBT treatment, were more likely to be free of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 1 month posttreatment if they received EMDR rather than CBT. They also found that EMDR showed the same efficacy when offered during the active period of medical treatment as after active medical treatment”.

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