The Use of EMDR in Treatment of Traumatized Iraqi Children

The purpose of this article is to determine the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among Iraqi children and the effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) treatment in traumatized Iraqi children. The participants in the present study were Iraqi children, ages 7-12; mean age = 10.17 years. There were 29 boys and 31 girls who immigrated to Malaysia during the recent war in Iraq. Those children were assessed for PTSD. Following the assessment, 37 children were assigned to two groups: 12 to the experimental group and 25 to the control group. The 12 children in the experimental group were treated with EMDR and were compared with the 25 children in the control group. This was done in order to determine the effectiveness of EMDR in reducing PTSD symptoms among traumatized children. UCLA PTSD DSM-IV (Revision 1) was used to determine the prevalence of PTSD among Iraqi children. The results suggested that EMDR was effective in reducing PTSD symptoms.