Diminution of Psychological Distress through EMDR Integrative Group Treatment Protocol among Secondary School Students: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial from Pakistan

EMDR-IGTP Clinical Trial Summary

Background and Objectives
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing – Integrative Group Treatment Protocol (EMDR-IGTP) has been in use since 1998 with wide age range of individuals both children and adults around the globe. Keeping in view the high vulnerability of children for the development of psychological Distress after experiencing traumatic events in their lives and existing treatment gap in Pakistan, a pilot randomized controlled trial was premeditated with the objectives of translation and adaptation of EMDR-IGTP (Jarero & Artigas, 2022) in cultural context of Pakistan along with establishment of fidelity, acceptability, feasibility and efficacy of adapted protocol in reducing psychological Distress among secondary school students.
Methodology
Study encompassed of two phases; where in Phase-I, EMDR-IGTP has been translated into Urdu and adapted according the cultural context of Pakistani society. However, phase II dealt with mapping the fidelity, acceptability and feasibility of protocol along with testing its efficacy. A sample of 94 children aged 11-16 years were selected from two Government schools and randomized into the intervention group (EMDR-IGTP session) and control group (routine care) after Pre- assessment through Urdu Version of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21). The administration of the EMDR-IGTP comprises the eight phased standard EMDR procedure with a group therapy model. The responses were collected in an art therapy format following original IGTP protocol. Mode of bilateral stimulation was self-administered in the form of Butterfly Hugs as an established exercise, thus enhancing more extensive reach to multiple individuals in a group than the individual EMDR application. After intervention, post-assessment was done immediately and it was planned to be carryout after 3months was well as Follow-up assessment.
Current Stage of Study
Follow-Up Assessment
Future Plan
After follow-up assessment, data will be analyzed for fidelity of the program through inter-rater reliability, acceptability and feasibility from children through quantitative and qualitative measures and efficacy through Mixed between-within subjects’ analysis of variance (ANOVA). Article will be written and will be submitted for publication.