The relative effectiveness of EMDR versus relaxation training with battered women prisoners.
EMDR offered no real trauma relief for women prisoners with ID—stick to behavioral anger or CBT programs that show clear gains.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Five women prisoners with anxiety and trauma history joined the study.
First they got daily relaxation training.
Later they tried Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) instead.
The team tracked anxiety and trauma signs across both phases.
What they found
Relaxation did nothing for any participant.
EMDR helped only one woman; the other four stayed the same or got slightly worse.
Overall, both treatments showed tiny to zero benefit.
How this fits with other research
Rose et al. (2000) ran group anger-management classes for adults with ID and saw big, lasting drops in aggression.
Their behavioral approach worked; EMDR here did not.
Willner (2015) reviewed drug studies and also found almost no help from pills for aggression in ID.
Together, these papers point the same way: behavioral methods beat both drugs and EMDR for emotional problems in this population.
Why it matters
If you serve adults with ID in forensic or secure settings, skip EMDR for trauma for now.
Use behavioral anger-management or CBT modules that have real data behind them.
Track mood and aggression daily so you can pivot quickly if gains stall.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Five women prisoners with a history of being battered and who met the DSM-IV criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder were assessed (A phase) and provided with structured relaxation training (RT) (B phase, or placebo treatment), followed by eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy (C phase). Using the Beck Anxiety Inventory and the Impact of Events Scale's avoidance behavior and intrusive thoughts subscales as outcome measures, RT alone did not result in any clinical improvements. The subsequent provision of EMDR did not improve upon this lack of success with 4 of the 5 participants; 1 did improve on anxiety and intrusive thoughts. The apparent ineffectiveness of EMDR with these participants may be attributed to several explanations. Foremost perhaps is the hypothesis that EMDR is not sufficient to ameliorate the effects of chronic abuse.
Behavior modification, 2000 · doi:10.1177/0145445500245006