Effect of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Intervention on pre operative anxiety in patients undergoing surgery

Hospitalization, surgery and anesthesia are for some children associated with anxiety and could be a frightful experience which may result in later problematic behavior. Different strategies are suggested to reduce the anxiety. EMDR as a non-pharmacological and inexpensive intervention can be used as a complementary technique. This study aimed to investigate the effect of EMDR on pre operative anxiety in children undergoing surgery. In this semi-experimental study, 56 children aged 12-18 years, were categorized into the study and control groups. Each girl subject was matched with a boy of the same age. The study was conducted at Alzahra¸ a Hospital in Isfahan, Iran, in spring and summer, 2013. EMDR was administered for 45 to 60 minutes for the study group. The data gathering instruments were questionnaires which included demographic information and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC). The hypothesis was tested with repeated measurement analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-test, Fisher, Chi-square and Mann-Whitney test. Findings of the study indicated that there was a significant reduction in the anxiety level after intervention in the study group in comparison to the control group (p<0.001). This finding showed that anxiety scores in study group declined after EMDR, compared to patients who hadn’t receive any intervention.