PSYCHOTHERAPY OF POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER IN MILITARY SERVANTS USING EMDR: THE “THREE YES” PROTOCOL.
Abstract
Relevance. The purpose of the publication is to verify the effectiveness of the EMDR therapy protocol in the complex treatment of military personnel with PTSD, which was carried out at the Feofaniya Clinical Hospital (Kyiv) and the Military Medical Clinical Center of the Northern Region in the period 2022-2025 (Kharkiv).
Methodology. Methods. Comparative research strategy. Interview and included observation. The authors developed the “Three Yes” protocol for the use of EMDR therapy for the treatment of military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with PTSD.. Self-assessment scale for the presence of PTSD PCL-5 (DSM-5 PTSD Checklist), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale HADS, Beck Depression Scale DBI, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index PSQI. Statistical methods: Student's T-test for independent samples, Cohen's coefficient.
Sample. 125 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a confirmed diagnosis of PTSD, including 98 people - the experimental group and 27 soldiers of the control group - patients with the same nosology who did not receive EMDR therapy.
Results. The results of the implementation of the “Three Yes” protocol confirm international data on the effectiveness of EMDR (Moreno-Alcázar, 2017, 65–74). During the adaptation of the method to the conditions of war in Ukraine, predictors were identified that improve the effectiveness of the therapy: a high level of general and emotional intelligence of the patient, professional self-realization, critical thinking, high level of education, sports achievements, purposefulness, self-discipline, responsibility, assertiveness, as well as the socialization of the military, healthy relationships in the family, experience of working with a psychologist. The effectiveness of EMDR therapy for military personnel is reduced by: the duration of hostilities in which the patient was involved, losses among comrades, ATO experience, unconstructive orders from commanders, experience of addiction, personal accentuations, low level of socialization and professional self-realization, tendency to psychic fusion, unresolved separation, divorce, bad family relationships, absence of children.
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