Does EMDR really work on PTSD?

Info from an EMDR therapist in Long Beach specializing in PTSD

No medical or mental health treatment works every single time for every single patient, however studies on EMDR are showing a lot of promise in the treatment of PTSD, anxiety, phobias, depression and other issues that tend to bring people into therapy.  Researchers have been conducting studies of people where they do brain scans immediately before and immediately after EMDR treatment.  Brain scans are showing us that EMDR works by helping the brain to process disturbing issues quickly so that the patient no longer experiences the intensity of their symptoms.   EMDR basically turns the volume down on the intensity of depression, anxiety, PTSD symptoms, phobias, and other issues.

According to The US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, “The ground-breaking methodology enabled our study to image for the first time the specific activations associated with the therapeutic actions typical of EMDR protocol. The findings suggest that traumatic events are processed at cognitive level following successful EMDR therapy, thus supporting the evidence of distinct neurobiological patterns of brain activations during BS associated with a significant relief from negative emotional experiences.”

The study went on to conclude “In all patients after 3 to 8 EMDR sessions (mean 5) symptoms related to the traumatic event disappeared and (PTSD symptoms) reached the normal values”. “All patients were still symptoms-free after 2 years of follow up”. Scores were “significantly different between patients and controls”.  (control group is the group who didn’t do EMDR).