How essential are the eye-movements?
In a sub-analysis included in the Davidson & Parker meta-analysis 13 studies were examined that compared EMDR treatments with an eye-movement condition to an EMDR treatment with an eyes-fixed condition. After calculating effect-sizes and comparing those in a statistical analysis using multiple t-tests no benefit of EMDR treatments with eye-movements could be shown. Therefore there is no evidence that eye-movements, that once gave EMDR its name and probably are part of its fame, are a necessary component of EMDR therapy. Conclusion EMDR has so far failed to prove that is more effective than other standard treatments used for the treatment of PTSD. Also eye-movements that were supposed to be an essential part of EMDR seem to be of no significance. Since EMDR is such a new treatment it still suffers from a substantial variance in findings from study to study, which may account for its lack of superiority to other standard treatments. Even if EMDR may not be as successful as many therapist
