Metacognitive therapy vs. eye movement desensitization and reprocessing for posttraumatic stress disorder: study protocol for a randomized superiority trial

Hans M Nordahl,Joar Øveraas Halvorsen,Mimoza Rrusta Ternava,Odin Hjemdal,Adrian Wells

doi:10.1186/s13063-017-2404-7

Abstract

BackgroundThe psychological treatment of choice for patients with severe posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is cognitive behavioural exposure therapy or Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR). Whilst these are the most effective treatments, approximately 30–45% of the patients show no significant improvements and follow-up data are sparse. Furthermore, a proportion of patients with severe trauma does not benefit or avoid exposure therapy due to the potential to overwhelm them. Therefore, it is necessary to search for effective methods that do not require exposure. Metacognitive therapy (MCT), a recent treatment approach to PTSD that does not require exposure, has potential strong treatment effects but so far a comparison with EMDR has not been made.Methods/designThis study is a two-arm, parallel, randomized, superiority trial comparing the effectiveness of MCT with EMDR. One hundred patients with a primary diagnosis of chronic PTSD will be included and will receive 12 sessions of one of the treatments. The primary outcome is severity of PTSD symptoms assessed with the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS) measured post-treatment (3 months). Secondary outcomes include symptom severity (PDS) and measures of anxiety, depression, metacognitive beliefs at 3-month and 12-month follow up.DiscussionThis randomized study is the first to compare MCT with EMDR with 12-month follow-up. The study will indicate the comparative effectiveness of MCT against EMDR and the stability of effects when delivered in an outpatient clinical setting.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01955590. Registered on 24 September 2013.

Highlights

The psychological treatment of choice for patients with severe posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is cognitive behavioural exposure therapy or Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR)
The study will indicate the comparative effectiveness of Metacognitive therapy (MCT) against EMDR and the stability of effects when delivered in an outpatient clinical setting
EMDR is based on the assumption that posttraumatic symptoms are caused by traumatic experience(s) being stored in an unprocessed way disconnected from existing memory networks [11]

Summary

Introduction

The psychological treatment of choice for patients with severe posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is cognitive behavioural exposure therapy or Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR). Whilst these are the most effective treatments, approximately 30–45% of the patients show no significant improvements and followup data are sparse. Prolonged exposure therapy [3], trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) [4] and eye movement desensitisation reprocessing (EMDR) [3] are recommended treatments for PTSD Each of these approaches utilises exposure to the majority of patients improve, a substantial proportion of patients drop out of treatment [4, 6, 7], present with residual symptoms following treatment or fail to improve [7,8,9]. EMDR is usually considered an evidence-based treatment for PTSD [5, 8, 20]

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