The Effectiveness of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy on Death Anxiety and Perceived Stress in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Thinking to death is one of the main concerns of patients with diabetes and is associated with anxiety or stress. In addition, limitations imposed by long-term treatment can also cause stress in this group of patients. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy on death anxiety and perceived stress in patients with type 2 diabetes.

This quasi-experimental research was a pretest-posttest design with follow-up and the statistical population included all patients with type 2 diabetes referred to the Charity Association for Diabetic Patients in Tehran, Iran, 2022. The statistical sample size was 40 patients (20 in the experimental group and 20 in the control group) from the statistical population who were selected by purposeful sampling method and randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. In experimental group, eight 90-minute sessions of EMDR therapy were performed and no treatment received by control group. Death Anxiety Scale Timpler (1970) and Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen and el, 1983) were used to collect data. The collected data were analyzed using the analysis of variance test with repeated measurements.

The average scores of death anxiety in the stages before and after the intervention were 9.15 and 6.10 in the experimental group and 9.10 and 8.90 in the control group, respectively. Also, the average scores of perceived stresses in the stages before and after the intervention in the experimental group were 27.65 and 19.65, respectively, and in the control group, 26.45 and 26.05, respectively. Repeated-measure test showed that the post-intervention scores of mean death anxiety score and perceived stress score in the experimental group had significantly difference with scores from control group, and this effect has also continued in the follow-up stage (p<0.01).

According to the results of this study, it can be concluded that EMDR therapy can decrease death anxiety and perceived stress in patients with type 2 diabetes. Therefore, this intervention is suggested for the psychological rehabilitation of patients with type 2 diabetes.