Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing as a potential treatment for substance use disorders: study protocol

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Neuroscience
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Traumatic events significantly increase the risk of substance use disorders (SUD), and vice versa.
• Trauma consequences are often overlooked in SUD patients, despite established treatments like Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).
• Neurobiological mechanisms underlying EMDR's efficacy in SUD patients with comorbid trauma are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of integrating EMDR into standard SUD treatment for patients with comorbid psychological trauma.
• To explore the potential neurobiological mechanisms of action for EMDR in this population.
• To test the primary hypothesis that EMDR enhances substance use prognosis.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial involving 64 patients with SUD and trauma symptoms.
• Participants were assigned to either EMDR plus treatment as usual (TAU) or TAU alone.
• Outcomes included time to relapse, symptom severity (PTSD, anxiety, depression), and biological markers (cortisol, eye blink conditioning, fMRI).

Main Results:

• The study is designed to assess the primary outcome of time to relapse at multiple follow-up points.
• Additional analyses will examine changes in psychological symptoms and neurobiological markers.
• Statistical methods include survival analysis and linear mixed models.

Conclusions:

• This research addresses a critical gap in understanding EMDR's efficacy for SUD patients with trauma.
• Findings could inform the integration of personalized, trauma-focused interventions into public health services for SUD.
• The study combines clinical and biological markers to provide a comprehensive evaluation.