EMDR Therapy Quarterly

EMDR Publications Database

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

We begin this update with a retrospective study published by Professor Jaime Delgadillo (King’s College London) and Dr Thomas Richardson (University of Southampton) on the associations between neighbourhood socio-economic deprivation, PTSD severity and treatment response (Delgadillo & Richardson, 2025).  The study analysed 2,064 electronic health records of patients treated for PTSD across 16 psychological therapy services in England. It revealed that patients seeking psychological therapy (TF-CBT or EMDR) living in socio-economically deprived neighbourhoods had more severe PTSD symptoms before therapy compared to those living in more economically advantaged neighbourhoods. Additionally, they demonstrated a poorer response to treatment unless they received lengthier interventions.

There are new RCTs in this update, including:

• Laurian Hafkemeijer, Simon Hofman and colleagues have published two publications relating to results from the TEMPO study (Trauma-focused EMDR for personality disorders among outpatients) (Hofman et al., 2022). One publication reports on the effectiveness of EMDR on PTSD symptoms and diagnostic status in patients with a personality disorder (Hafkemeijer et al., 2025). This research paper concluded that EMDR significantly reduced PTSD symptoms and was effective for a range of adverse event memories, irrespective of their baseline PTSD diagnosis. The companion publication evaluates the effectiveness of EMDR therapy in reducing personality disorder symptoms compared with a waiting list, regardless of PTSD status. This research paper reported that EMDR was superior to a waiting-list control condition in reducing personality disorder symptoms and improving personality functioning and emotion regulation, resulting in 44.1% (n=30) of participants achieving personality disorder diagnostic remission.
• An RCT, also from the Netherlands (Dr Yvette Hendrix and colleagues), investigated the effectiveness and safety of early EMDR in reducing symptoms and incidence of PTSD at nine weeks postpartum in women with a traumatic birth experience, compared with care as usual (Hendrix et al., 2025). The study included 151 participants (76 in the treatment group and 75 in the control group) and found that EMDR reduced PTSD symptom severity and associated psychological distress (including depression, bonding difficulties and fear of childbirth).
• An RCT on the effect of EMDR on the intensity of primary dysmenorrhea with 88 participants (Valedi et al., 2025) found that EMDR significantly reduced the severity of dysmenorrhea symptoms, including pain intensity, menstrual distress and the need for analgesics, with effects sustained up to two months post-intervention, in comparison to no intervention.

Two new RCT protocols for ongoing research have been added to the database:

• EMpower Parents: Effectiveness of EMDR treatment for parental PTSD related to a child’s medical condition (Vesseur et al., 2025)
• EMDR as a potential treatment for substance use disorders (Sanchez et al., 2025)

There are two published studies relating to parents of children with autism spectrum disorder in this update. An RCT conducted in Iran with 60 parents of autistic children found that EMDR therapy significantly and immediately reduced depression in the parents, with the effect maintained one month later (Rashidi et al., 2025). Anne Stekkinger-de Vries and colleagues have published a single-case design study of EMDR for child-related PTSD in parents of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and severe emotional dysregulation (Stekkinger-de Vries et al., 2025). The study included seven parents (of six adolescents) and found that all parents showed a reduction of PTSD symptoms after EMDR therapy, both immediately after treatment and at 30-day follow-up. This was compared with the control group, which received no intervention.

Military and veteran populations

An observational study from the United States examined treatment outcomes for 2,717 military-affiliated clients (veterans, active duty service members and their adult family members) receiving treatment for PTSD within a community health network (Lancaster et al., 2025). The percentage of clients who achieved clinically significant change, defined as a PCL-5 score reduction of 18 points or more, was substantial for EMDR. Specifically, 47.8% of clients who completed four or more EMDR sessions met this threshold. When restricting the analysis to clients who screened positive for PTSD at intake (PCL-5 score > 32), it was found that 53.6% of those receiving EMDR achieved clinically significant change. Furthermore, the study found that cognitive processing therapy, EMDR and prolonged exposure were all beneficial in real-world settings and demonstrated comparable large effect sizes. 

Psychosis

Two systematic reviews relating to EMDR for psychosis have been added to the database this quarter. Ahmed and colleagues included four RCTs (a total of 275 participants) and found that EMDR was generally superior to treatment as usual and wait-list and was particularly effective in reducing psychotic negative symptoms and paranoid thinking. However, improvements in delusions and auditory hallucinations were mostly insignificant (Ahmed et al., 2025). A broader systematic review on trauma-focused treatment for psychosis (Hellen et al., 2025) included six EMDR studies that reported outcomes related to psychosis symptoms, with four of the studies reporting positive outcomes in relation to the reduction in symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions and paranoid ideations. 

We are also pleased to announce that Aline Hardwick’s qualitative research, “Stepping into the trauma memory scene” with EMDR: What is it like for adults with psychosis?, which was featured in a poster at this year’s annual conference in Liverpool, has now been published in the journal Psychosis (Hardwick et al., 2025). Aline’s doctoral research is supervised by Dr Susannah Colbert, a member of the EMDR UK Scientific Research Committee (SRC), at the Salomons Institute for Applied Psychology, Canterbury Christ Church University.

Other studies by UK authors

Dr Sarah Cope and colleagues have published the results of the MODIFI feasibility randomised controlled trial (50 participants, two groups – EMDR and neuropsychiatric care (NPC) or NPC alone) (Cope et al., 2025). EMDR therapy, adapted for functional neurological disorder, was both feasible and acceptable to participants. The EMDR group showed greater patient satisfaction and reported greater improvements in functional neurological disorder symptoms and related outcomes, including reductions in PTSD, depression, anxiety, disability and healthcare use, compared to the group receiving standard care alone. The authors conclude that the results warrant a full-scale trial.

Researchers from the Division of Psychiatry at University College London have published a review of systematic reviews outlining the current treatments and debates relating to PTSD and complex PTSD (Billings & Nicholls, 2025).

What else has been added to the database this quarter?

The most recent update to the database was in October 2025, when 42 new publications were added. 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. Table 1 provides an overview of the topics and study designs added to the database this quarter. Please note that topic areas are not mutually exclusive; some publications may appear in more than one category.

Table 1: New research by topic and study design

Topic	Number of new publications added	Study designs
PTSD	17	Systematic reviews, RCTs (and RCT protocol), Feasibility/pilot study, clinical trial (not randomised), single-case experimental design, observational studies, qualitative research, theses, literature review
Chronic pain	4	Systematic review, RCT, literature review, case study
Complex PTSD	3	Systematic review (of reviews), clinical trial (not randomised), case study
Parents	3	RCT, RCT protocol, quasi-experimental
Psychosis	3	Systematic reviews, qualitative research
Autism spectrum disorder	2	RCT, quasi experimental
Children and adolescents	2	Systematic review, case study
Medical trauma	2	Systematic review, case study
Personality disorder	2	RCT (same study, two publications)
Sexual trauma	2	Theses
Addiction	1	Single-case experimental design
Anxiety	1	Thesis
Eating disorders	1	Literature review
Functional neurological disorder	1	Feasibility study
Generalised anxiety disorder	1	RCT
Intensive EMDR	1	Clinical trial (not randomised)
Military personnel/veterans	1	Observational study
Pain	1	RCT
Perinatal	1	RCT
Substance use disorders	1	RCT protocol

How we populate the database (methods)

The EMDR Publications Database is developed collaboratively with the Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research (SCHARR) and is provided as a free resource for Association members. If you have not yet accessed this useful resource, you can find out how to do so in the members’ 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 2000 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 using specific terms of interest.

Searches to populate the database are conducted on the following international databases: MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, and PTSDpubs.

The next update of the publications database will be in January 2026, 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 the University of Sheffield: emdrdatabase@sheffield.ac.uk

Disclaimer: this update reports study findings only; the research included in the database has not been assessed for quality, and we recommend that evidence users do so before applying recommendations into practice. You can find out more about critical appraisal of research here: EMDR UK Association research webinars: Developing critical analytic skills – EMDR Therapy Quarterly