EMDR Therapy Quarterly

The EMDR Publications Database has been developed collaboratively using the expertise of the Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research (SCHARR) and is provided as a free resource for Association members. If you still haven’t accessed this useful resource, you can find out how to in the member’s area of the EMDR UK website.

The EMDR Publications Database is a collection of peer-reviewed research and dissertations/theses focusing on EMDR. It contains over 1900 references, many of which have access to the full text. The references are categorised by ‘tags’ (keywords) relating to the clinical area and study type – allowing for easy browsing. The database can also be searched by terms of interest.

The most recent update to the database was in April 2025, where 41 new publications were added. The search to populate the database was conducted on the following international databases: MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, and PTSDpubs.

Newly added publications can be easily viewed by clicking on the ‘NEW’ tag. Within the NEW tag, you can then select further tags of interest to see what has recently been added for specific topics and research types.

New publications by type

Research/publication type tag Number of new publications added	Number of new publications added
Trials	10
Systematic reviews/meta-analyses	6
Dissertations & theses	5
Qualitative research	4
Case reports & case series	4
Feasibility/pilot studies	3
Retrospective studies	3
Non-English language	3 (2 German, 1 French)

Table 1. New publications by research/publication type

A selected summary of recent research added to the EMDR Publications Database

A systematic review of psychological interventions for post-myocardial infarction patients found EMDR reduced PTSD symptoms, along with anxiety and depression (Chew et al., 2025). This research has a graphical abstract, which can be found here. Notably, this review has been highlighted as the “Editor’s Choice” for the European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing.

A randomised controlled trial (RCT) of EMDR with and without dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) for PTSD and comorbid borderline personality disorder symptoms (Snoek et al., 2025) found that both treatments led to a reduction in PTSD symptoms, but global functioning improved only in the EMDR group according to one measure (WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0). Additionally, patients in the EMDR-DBT group were twice as likely to drop out from EMDR treatment compared to those in the EMDR-only group.

A randomised study conducted in Ecuador with women who were victims of violence indicated that EMDR therapy was more effective than narrative exposure therapy in improving clinical outcomes (anxiety, depression, post-traumatic symptoms), neuropsychological performance (working memory, executive functioning) and quality of life (Meneses et al., 2024).

Several retrospective studies have been added to the publications database this quarter. A service evaluation conducted over 11 years in a London NHS Talking Therapies (TT) service found no significant difference in PTSD recovery between CT-PTSD and EMDR, using NHS TT criteria (Belli et al., 2025). CT-PTSD showed greater reductions in anxiety and depression; however, this finding was confounded by higher baseline anxiety and depression scores in the CT-PTSD group at the start of treatment.

A retrospective analysis of 34 women in an Irish hospital indicated that EMDR therapy may be an effective and easily delivered intervention for childbirth-related posttraumatic stress symptoms and disorder, with most showing symptom reduction and a low dropout rate, although no factors predicting effectiveness or completion were identified (Doherty et al., 2025). However, the study limitations highlighted by the authors include lack of a control group and long-term follow-up. The statistical analyses were also limited by the sample size.

A study evaluating two trauma-focused interventions for children in the Central African Republic – the narrative protocol Action contre la Faim (ACF)/KONO and the EMDR G-TEP protocol – found that the G-TEP protocol reduced posttraumatic symptoms in children aged 6–17 years as effectively and significantly as the ACF/KONO protocol over five sessions (Dozio et al., 2024). The positive effects of both protocols were maintained in follow-up data, where available, five months after treatment.

Dissertations and theses

We continue to collect references to dissertations and theses about EMDR for the publications databases, linking to a copy of the document where open access is available. Five have been added this month, including two from the UK (University of Manchester). The full text is available for both via the University of Manchester institutional repository:

The Use and Effectiveness of Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing by Educational Psychologists by Janice M Shaw.

A Multicomponent Remote Group Intervention for Parent Refugees and Asylum Seekers with Young Children by Safa Kemal Kaptan.

The next update to the Publications Database will be in July, but in the meantime, if you have any queries or comments, you are welcome to get in touch at a.sutton@emdrassociation.org.uk. If you are an EMDR UK member, and wish to request access to the database, please email the team at University of Sheffield team at emdrdatabase@sheffield.ac.uk