Page 139 - Post-traumatic stress disorder in adults with mild intellectual disability: Screening, assessment, and brief intensive EMDR therapy

General discussion
Key finding 2: Brief intensive EMDR therapy with rotating therapists was
effective in our group of adults with MID-BIF, PTSD and severe behavioural
problems
In Study 3 (Chapter 4), twelve participants started brief intensive EMDR
therapy with rotating therapists, of whom eleven completed the treatment.
Those who completed treatment showed a significant reduction in PTSD
symptoms and nine of them no longer met diagnostic criteria for PTSD
immediately after treatment and at nine-week follow-up. No adverse events
were reported, supporting the notion that brief intensive EMDR therapy for
these individuals is safe. These findings align with those of other studies
on intensive trauma-focused treatments in children and adolescents with
MID-BIF (Ooms-Evers et al., 2021) and in families with MID-BIF (Mevissen
et al., 2020b).
The low dropout rate observed in Study 3 (Chapter 4) is consistent with
other research indicating that intensive trauma-focused treatments are
associated with lower dropout rates than weekly trauma treatments (e.g.,
Gahnfelt et al., 2025; Hoppen et al., 2023). In the two studies that examined
intensive trauma focused-treatment in individuals with MID-BIF, no
participants discontinued treatment (Mevissen et al., 2020b; Ooms-Evers et
al., 2021). A reason for the lower dropout rates in intensive trauma-focused
treatments lies in their structure, which is established by condensing
sessions into a short timeframe, minimising avoidance between sessions,
maintaining therapeutic engagement, and allowing PTSD symptoms to
decrease relatively quickly (Bongaerts et al., 2022; Thoresen et al., 2022;
Van Woudenberg et al., 2018). Study 4 (Chapter 5), which explored three
participants’ experiences with brief intensive EMDR therapy, offered some
support for this. Participants generally experienced the intensive format as
positive and helpful for maintaining engagement and completing treatment.
They described the high intensity as motivating and as contributing to a
sense of focus and continuity. Even the participant who discontinued
treatment early indicated that, if he were to receive EMDR therapy again, he
would once again prefer an intensive format, believing this would allow him
to make faster progress. His professional caregiver likewise believed that
an intensive format suited him well, noting that he might have dropped out
even sooner in a less intensive (weekly) format.
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