A five-day inpatient EMDR treatment programme for PTSD: pilot study

Figures & data

Table 1. Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics of intent-to-treat sample (N = 12).

		N (%)
Male		9 (75.0)
Civil status	Single	2 (16.7)
	Married/partnership	3 (25.0)
	Married/partnership with children	7 (58.3)
Educational level^a	Low	3 (25.0)
	Middle	5 (41.7)
	High	4 (33.3)
Trauma type	Veteran	6 (50.0)
	Police	4 (33.3)
	Both childhood trauma and adult trauma	1 (8.3)
	Asylum seeker	1 (8.3)
Exposed to childhood abuse		6 (50.0)
No previous trauma treatment		7 (58.3)
Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview	Major depressive disorder	7 (58.3)
(N = 10)	Panic disorder with agoraphobia	3 (25.0)
	Obsessive compulsive disorder	2 (16.7)
	Alcohol dependency	2 (16.7)
			M (SD)
Age			44.20 (11.10)
Years after index trauma			18.00 (13.74)
Months of previous treatment			20.83 (27.95)
Baseline CAPS total score^b			40.75 (7.66)
Baseline PCL-5 total score			47.00 (9.96)
Baseline BSI total score			1.77 (0.65)

^aLow: completed elementary school or lower vocational education.

Middle: completed high school or middle level vocational education.

High: completed high level vocational education, pre-university, college or university degree.

^bOne patient fulfilled the criteria of the dissociative subtype of PTSD.

Table 2. PCL-5 scores of total group (N = 12) and in categories of recovered, improved and unchanged.

	T1 Mean (SD)	T2 Mean (SD)	T3 Mean (SD)
PCL-5 total	52.67 (14.34)	42.67 (17.20)	36.25 (20.95)
Recovered (n = 2)	49.50 (0.71)	37.00 (25.46)	20.00 (9.90)
Improved (n = 7)	50.57 (17.75)	40.29 (17.24)	31.86 (20.65)
Unchanged (n = 3)	59.66 (9.29)	52.00 (15.10)	57.33 (9.29)

T1 = day 1; T2 = day 5; T3 = day 21; PCL-5 total score: recovered = no probable diagnosis of PTSD and RC ≤ −1.96; improved = probable diagnosis of PTSD and RC ≤ −1.96; unchanged = probable PTSD diagnosis and RC > −1.96 or <+1.96.

Table 3. Treatment outcome and reliable change indexes on PCL-5 scores per patient from T1 to T2 and from T1 to T3.

Patient number	PCL total T1–T2	RCI T1–T2	PCL total T1–T3	RCI T1–T3
4	1	−5.72	1	−6.86
7	3	0.95	1	−4.38
2	3	0.38	2	−4.95
11	3	0.57	2	−2.86
12	1	−7.24	2	−6.48
6	3	−0.76	2	−3.24
1	3	−1.52	2	−2.86
9	3	−1.91	2	−2.48
10	2	−3.24	2	−2.10
8	3	−1.91	3	−0.76
3	1	−2.48	3	−0.38
5	3	-	3	−0.19

T1–T2 = difference between day 5 and day 1; T1–T3 = difference between day 21 and day 1; PCL-5 total score: 1 = recovered (no probable diagnosis of PTSD and RC ≤ −1.96); 2 = improved (probable diagnosis of PTSD and RC ≤ −1.96); 3 = unchanged (probable PTSD diagnosis and RC > −1.96 or < +1.96).

Figure 1. Mean total PCL-5 scores on T1, T2 and T3 in groups of recovered (patient number: 4,7), improved (patient number: 2,11,12,6,1,9,10) and unchanged (patient number: 8,3,5) patients.

Table 4. Tolerability of treatment on visual analogue scale (0–10).

	Day 1 Mean (SD)	Day 2 Mean (SD)	Day 3 Mean (SD)	Day 4 Mean (SD)	Day 5 Mean (SD)
Session 1		4.64 (3.14)	4.58 (3.19)	4.79 (3.94)	5.16 (3.32)
Session 2	4.99 (3.09)	5.63 (3.10)	5.62 (3.76)	3.83 (3.16)	2.66 (2.30)