Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing in the ED and Post-Traumatic Syndrome

Emergency department are a privileged service for patients suffering from trauma and stressful medical conditions. In France every year 10 million people come or are taken to the emergency room (ER). Many studies have shown that 10-20% of these trauma patients develop a non-specific set of symptoms that can persist for several months after ED assessment. These includes, for example, headache, memory and/or concentration impairment, stress intolerance, irritability... These symptoms lead to an alteration in the quality of social, family and professional life, and therefore affect one to two millions people in France alone. The association between these symptoms and mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) has already been demonstrated. It was defined as post-concussion syndrome (PCS) according to the DSM-IV-TR. However, several recent studies have shown that these symptoms are not specific to MTBI but may appear for any type of trauma and event for stressful medical conditions. PCS seems to appear for events occurring in a stressful environment or in people with psychological weaknesses. These symptoms will therefore be referred here to PCS-like syndrome (PCSLS). Moreover, PCS-LS symptoms appear to be very similar to those of the numbing and hyperarousal dimension of the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A recent study, carried out by our team in the ED of Bordeaux University Hospital, showed that PCS-LS was associated with a high level of stress at ED discharge, whatever that stress level at entry. The Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a recognized psychotherapeutic approach in the treatment of PTSD and several single-session versions of the protocol have been proposed (R-TEP EMDR).The investigators hypothesize that the introduction of an early R-TEP EMDR intervention in emergencies can reduce the level of stress and thus the occurrence of the PCSLS and PTSD symptoms among a subset of patients screened for their high risk of PCS-LS. The study is a single-site open-label three-group randomized controlled trial designed to assess the feasibility of an early R-TEP EMDR intervention performed in the ED and to compare PCS-LS and PTSD symptoms at 3 months between the three randomization groups: (i) TEP-EMDR; (ii) 15' reassurance session; (iii) care as usual.