It is certainly to Maxfield's credit that she is co-author on a study that does not show the findings that she might have predicted. Perhaps this will further enhance her credibility re the other papers she has published, which also demonstrate her integrity and her allegiance to the scientific method. Studies with findings favorable to EMDR have been published in many high-status journals, including JCCP. Some of the recent RCTs (that's "Randomized Clinical Trials") with findings favorable to EMDR have excellent methodology even if not published in JCCP. If it's a horse-race between EMDR and Prolonged Exposure, there is certainly no winner or loser at this point. If I'm the announcer, I'd say that PE is ahead in terms of tradition and acceptance in the scholarly field, while EMDR is ahead in terms of direct comparison as well as acceptance among clinicians. However, in the direct comparisons, each treatment has won some and lost some; and in general, the difference between the winner and loser has not been great. Meanwhile, if anyone is bored by discussions about EMDR or feel that these are a waste of time, they are free to use their time more profitably.
I share Landry's interest in discovering which treatments work well and for what reason. This can probably be accomplished most effectively by staying focused on the issues and avoiding the premature write-off of a treatment such as EMDR that has been established as legitimate and efficacious, and that is clearly at least in part different than PE in that it uses procedures (e.g. short exposure bursts and free association) that directly conflict with PE principles.
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