EMDR 2019 Updates!

In 2019, three important articles providing strong support for EMDR therapy appeared in three of the world's leading psychology and psychiatry journals, marking three significant publications.

One of these articles was published in the world's leading multidisciplinary science journal Nature (IF 43.0), by Baek and colleagues. Their study reveals EMDR's mechanism of action and neuroanatomical pathways in animal subjects. The authors discovered that the intervention incorporating bilateral stimulation, compared with the control condition, led to a significant and lasting reduction in fear-related behaviors (phobias).

Contributing further to EMDR discussions, the authors found that bilateral stimulation increased neuronal activity in the superior colliculus and mediodorsal thalamus, thereby reducing the excitability of neurons in the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala.

The second article was published in Neuron, one of the most influential platforms for the scientific literature in neuroscience (IF 14.4). Maddox and colleagues examined the encoding of traumatic memory. The authors also explore and discuss EMDR in detail as an approach viewed as an effective psychotherapy for rewriting traumatic memories, addressing the processes underlying their persistence following the neural encoding of a distressing experience.

The third article appeared in a scientific journal published by Nature Publishing Group, Moleküler Psikiyatri (Molecular Psychiatry). Its impact factor is 11.9. For the first time, Vinkers and colleagues showed that EMDR may modulate epigenetic patterns in patients with PTSD in differentially methylated regions, particularly Zinc Finger Protein 57 (ZFP57). These data provide evidence that ZFP57 methylation plays a role in the development and successful treatment of deployment-related PTSD. This has been highlighted as an important step toward unraveling the interaction between psychological and biological systems, enabling the identification of genomic regions relevant to the etiology and treatment of PTSD.

 

References:

“Neural circuits underlying a psycho-therapeutic regimen for fear disorders”. Jinhee Baek, Sukchan Lee, Taesup Cho, Seong-Wook Kim, Minsoo Kim, Yongwoo Yoon, Ko Keun Kim, Junweon Byun, Sang Jeong Kim, Jaeseung Jeong & Hee-Sup Shin, Nature 566, 339–343 (2019) doi:10.1038/s41586-019-0931-y.

“Deconstructing the Gestalt: Mechanisms of Fear, Threat, and Trauma Memory Encoding”. Stephanie A. Maddox, Jakob Hartmann, Rachel A. Ross and Kerry J. Ressler, Neuron 102, April 3, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.03.017

“Successful treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder reverses DNA methylation marks”. Christiaan H. Vinkers, Elbert Geuze, Sanne J. H. van Rooij, Mitzy Kennis, Remmelt R. Schür, Danny M. Nispeling, Alicia K. Smith, Caroline M. Nievergelt, Monica Uddin, Bart P. F. Rutten, Eric Vermetten, Marco P. Boks, Molecular Psychiatry (2019) doi:10.1038/s41380-019-0549-3