The efficacy of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) in reducing symptoms of anxiety disorders in sexually-abused students

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) in reducing symptoms of anxiety disorders in sexually-abused students. The research method was semi experimental with pretest and posttest with control group. Fourteen adolescent girls who were sexually abused at the age of 12 to 18 years old were selected through convenient sampling and randomly assigned into the two experimental and control groups. Data in pretest were obtained by using the screen for child anxiety related emotional disorders-71 (SCARED-71). Then the EMDR therapy was performed for the experimental group through 5 to 8 sessions and at the end, a posttest was taken by all subjects of the experimental and control groups. The data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance. The results revealed that the therapy is effective for reducing anxiety disorders including panic, GAD, OCD and PTSD in sexually-abused students. Therefore, we conclude that eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is effective to ameliorate this group of disorders.