The finished Meta-analysis was reported one month ago

The van Etten & Taylor Meta-analysis reported at the 1996 AABT meeting was preliminary and did not contain most of the EMDR studies. Their final data was reported at the European Congress of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies conference last month. They reported that EMDR was equally effective to behavior therapy, although EMDR takes significantly less time. For instance, controlled studies of exposure therapies with single trauma victims take 25-50 hours of combined treatment and exposure (Foa et al., 1991; Richards, Lovell & Marks, 1994), while EMDR takes three ninety minute sessions to eliminate 84-100% of the diagnoses (Marcus, Marquis & Sakai, in press; Rothbaum, 1997; Scheck, Schaeffer & Gillette, in press; Wilson, Becker & Tinker, 1995 & in press).

The unfortunate aspect of the meta-analysis is that it included EMDR studies conducted by researchers who had not been trained, or who reported negative fidelity checks (how well the researcher performed the method), along with the studies by competent researchers. This, naturally, compromised the effect size and variance. Nevertheless, even with this drawback, EMDR was termed equally efficacious. I'd appreciate your re-posting this message to the appropriate list.

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How long would a typical course of treatment with EMDR be?, by Jim Pretzer, 11/19/97 Length of treatment depends upon client need, by Francine Shapiro, 11/26/97

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