Yousef Dehghani

Child abuse is increasingly known as a risk factor for health and rehabilitation in children across any nationality worldwide Studies assessed in this research showed that child abuse, as a traumatic event can lead to symptoms of PTSD, mind-wandering, and also suicidal ideation in adulthood. Although studies showed significant effects of EMDR on a reduction in psychological symptoms in individuals with a history of trauma, further studies are needed regarding the specific effect of this treatment on reducing PTSD symptoms, suicidal ideations, mind wandering in female victims of child abuse. The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of EMDR therapy on reducing PTSD symptoms, suicidal ideations, and mind-wandering in female victims of child abuse. Thirty females Victims of Child Abuse were assigned to EMDR (N=15; Mage=10.20; SD=1.03) and waiting list control (N=15; Mage=10.05; SD=0.83) in a randomized, double-blind trial. The participants in the EMDR group attended 8 two times-weekly sessions. The participants were examined in pre-test and post-test with Civilian Mississippi Scale for PTSD (CMS), Child Abuse Self Report Scale (CARS), Mind-Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ), and Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSSI), and Brief Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-B). Results of multivariate analysis of covariance showed that EMDR had a significant effect on reducing PTSD symptoms with the effect size of 0.72, suicidal ideations in female victims of child abuse with the effect size of 0.53, and mind-wandering with the effect size of 0.19. It can be concluded that this treatment is effective in improving PTSD, suicidal ideations, and mind-wandering in female victims of child abuse.