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Kendra King

English 2010
October 27, 2014
EMDR and PTSD in Combat Veterans

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a major problem in returning soldiers. It affects their lives, their
families, and their ability to sleep, eat, interact, and function. Reoccurring nightmares are common.
Flashbacks can happen and are sometimes brought on by something as simple as a smell or a sound.
Fireworks can be Hell for combat veterans. A life riddled with PTSD is often not a life at all. This is why
treatment for our veterans is so important. They were willing to risk it all for us; we should be willing to
give them everything we can to help them have the best life possible after returning from combat. This
is where EMDR therapy comes in. EMDR therapy has shown, time and again, that it is a very powerful
tool when battling PTSD. The problem that has arisen with EMDR therapy is that war veterans are not
being given enough access to it. Not only are they not being given access to the best PTSD treatments,
the Department of Veterans Affairs has stopped funding research into better PTSD treatments in general
despite a growing need.
Before jumping head first into why the government should be allowing more EMDR therapy as well as
continuing research into better PTSD treatment options, I would like to give you a brief overview of
what EMDR is and of the solid evidence thats available on its effectiveness:
EMDR therapy may be weird and in my own opinion is what I would imagine a trip on acid would be
likebad and good trips both includedbut it has been found to be as effective as both CBT therapy
and exposure therapy with one added benefit: it does it in much less time and in a way that the
participant does not have to share any disturbing images with a therapist that they dont choose to. The
reason EMDR therapy works is still being investigated. Its not the best tagline for the therapy, but each
resource that considers why the therapy is effective boils their answer down to, We can speculate why
it works, but all we really know is that it does, (WebMD).
EMDR therapy deals with activating both hemispheres of the brain through some form of bilateral
stimulation be it hand held tappers that vibrate in alternating hands, tapping rhythmically on
alternating sides of the body, left-right visual stimulation, or rhythmic bilateral sounds . The speculated
reason for the need for bilateral stimulation is that it enables both the emotional and rational
hemispheres of the brain to work together to resolve trauma. It basically unsticks the brain by not
allowing it to flood with too much emotion and lock onto a trauma. Once both hemispheres of the
brain are working together, a traumatic situation with an underlying negative belief and a belief that we
would prefer to have is introduced. This is where the acid trip begins. Each experience with
reprocessing trauma is unique to the individual. Some people are able to do it in a very rational manner
seeing people, actions, and words exchanged. Some people imagine themselves as a tiny toxic mouse in
a pit full of eyeless, poison-oozing snakes that struggles to finally get out before being eaten. Both are
acceptable forms of processing as long as we reach a positive end belief. My understanding is that the
former processing style is far more common than the latter. The most significant part of EMDR

processing is the lack of needing to reveal the events being processed, making it an ideal therapy for
those dealing with shame or fear based cognitions (EMDR Institute).
One of the most extraordinary studies I came across was one in Military Psychology that was about four
U.S. troops that had encountered active combat and were seeking immediate relief from PTSD
symptoms before returning state-side. In this study, EMDR had to be used in a much abbreviated form
and by using very specific, targeted memories and not allowing the patient to deviate too much from
the memory at hand because of extreme time constraints. Even in its abbreviated form, EMDR therapy
proved effective enough to send all four of these men stateside, with severely lessened PTSD symptoms
form their particular combat trauma events in a single session. None of the men required a second
session to feel comfortable enough to go home. All of the men were asked to seek further treatment as
these were abbreviated sessions and only meant to relieve the most stressing aspects of their combat
related PTSD. What I found most impressive is that, what they meant by further treatment boiled
down to this: an average of 3 EMDR sessions for a single incident trauma and only 12 sessions for
someone with multiple traumas. As a rule, this isnt a treatment that takes years (Military Psychology).
Still another study cites a UK soldier that developed PTSD symptoms while out on the front lines treating
a land mine casualty. The soldier was unable to return to duty as a result. After an evaluation, it was
decided that he would attempt EMDR therapy and after four sessions on consecutive days, not only was
the trauma response minimized, but the soldier was able to return to front line duties. Follow up
studies indicated that the soldier was able to maintain the progress made up to his final follow up, which
was eighteen months after the event (Journal of EMDR).
Overall, EMDR therapy has proved as effective as the two forms of therapy the VA currently endorses
for treatment of PTSD which are Exposure Therapy where a patient relives a trauma situation over and
over until they become desensitized to it and to CBT therapy which encourages a client to challenge
their beliefs about a traumatic event (Department of Veteran Affairs). EMDR does have a certain edge
to it too. With exposure therapy it is becoming more and more accepted that this therapy may help
some, but it may also harm others in terms of overexposing them to their traumas and making them
worse, especially dealing with shame, guilt, or anger. CBT therapy boasts a 40% drop out rate due to
slow results and it has also been found that the results are not necessarily life long, and patients may
become symptomatic of PTSD again. In contrast, EMDR has the ability to offer immediate, lasting results
and all without the client having to tell the therapist exactly what is running through their head and
without being assigned homework which is especially common with CBT (NCBI).
With this evidence backing EMDR therapy, then why is it not a more readily available option for our
troops? This information can prove hard to dig up, but my understanding is that the Department of
Veteran Affairs does not endorse EMDR therapy as one of their preferred treatment methods based on
a technicality of it not fitting with the exact criteria of:
(i) At least two good between group design experiments demonstrating efficacy in
one or more of the following ways:
A. Superior (statistically significantly so) to pill or psychological placebo, or to

another treatment.
B. Equivalent to an already established treatment in experiments with adequate
sample size
It also goes on to state that studies must be conducted using combat veterans and also must have
established treatment manuals and that the study results must be duplicated by at least two different
teams (Behavioral Interventions). I have been unable to find any studies that the Department of
Veterans affairs or any other military research team has done in recent years to help flush out the
promising therapy that EMDR is.
Even with the lack of research though, the Department of Veteran Affairs does recognize EMDR as an
effective therapy (National Center for PTSD). It isnt one offered in their hospitals or clinics, but it is one
that they permitted TRICARE to start covering again as of December 9, 2010. (Huffington Post). The fact
that they allow their TRICARE to cover this, but opt to not research the technique more and see if it is
the gem it professes to be makes no sense to me. The two therapies that are readily available at VA
hospitals and clinics are Exposure Therapy (PE) and CBT. EMDR has not been included on the list of
readily available services for veterans (Department of Veteran Affairs).
To me, this feels like a huge disservice for the Department of Veteran Affairs to not be including EMDR
therapy on their list of readily available services, especially on the front lines, due to its unique nature
and ability to be fast acting and particularly effective at addressing shame, guilt, and anger which are
emotions commonly experienced by combat veterans. If we do not see EMDR included on the list of
services readily available in VA facilities, then I would at least like to see more research being done on
the therapy and a conclusive study that contradicts its ability to be as effective as CBT and PE therapies.
If not then I feel it is a grave disservice to our veterans and those in active combat to not offer EMDR
therapy as a form of help and would like those stopping the therapy from being more available to let it
weigh on their consciences that the lack of providing this therapy alternative may be costing people
relationships, the ability to live a normal life, and sometimes even the life of a soldier. In a day and age
where we have so many veterans struggling to adapt to civilian life and such a high rate of veteran
suicides, it is not acceptable to leave any stone unturned that may yield our service men and women
additional relief from the atrocities they have had to endure.

Works Cited
ABPP, Mark C. Russell Ph.D. "Who Cares? Part I: Veterans Denied Access to Top PTSD
Treatments." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 25 May 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
Albright, David L., and Bruce Thyer. "EMDR Is Not an Empirically Supported Treatment for Combatrelated PTSDyet: A Response to Elisha C. Hurley, Dmin, Colonel, USA
(Retired)." Behavioral Interventions 25.4 (2010): 355-60. Web.
"EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing." WebMD. WebMD, 2013. Web. 27 Oct.
2014.
"EMDR Institute, Inc. - EMDR Institute." EMDR Institute, Inc. EMDR Institute, Inc., 2011. Web. 20
Oct. 2014.
Kar, Nilamadhab. "Abstract." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of
Medicine, 04 Apr. 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
"PTSD: National Center for PTSD." U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. VA Heathcare, 27 Feb. 2014.
Web.
Russell, Mark C. "Treating Combat-Related Stress Disorders: A Multiple Case Study Utilizing Eye
Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) With Battlefield Casualties From the Iraqi
War." Military Psychology 18.1 (2006): 1-18. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
Wesson, Matthew, and Matthew Gould. "Intervening Early With EMDR on Military Operations A
Case Study." Journal of EMDR Practice and Research 3.2 (2009): 91-97. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

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