Effectiveness of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) on Anxiety Sensitivity in Patients with Migraine

Stress is a migraine trigger. Anxiety sensitivity as a mediator between stress and disease is one of the factors affecting the symptoms of migraine. Purpose of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) on anxiety sensitivity in patients with migraine.
In this semi experimental study, 36 patients with migraine were randomly divided into two groups: experimental and control. Patients of experimental group received EMDR therapy, 3 sessions of 90 minutes within three weeks. Control group did not receive any medical or psychological intervention. Participants in both groups were evaluated with Anxiety Sensitivity Inventory-Revised (ASI-R) during pre-test, post-test and one-month follow-up.
Findings: The analysis of variance with repeated measures showed that eye movement desensitization and reprocessing reduces anxiety sensitivity (P The results suggest that EMDR can be considered as one of the therapies for migraine headaches.