Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for Police Personnel

NCT ID: NCT05171868

Last Updated: 2024-05-17

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 80 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-05-20
• Study Completion Date: 2025-06-30

Brief Summary

Objectives:

1. To examine the feasibility of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) as an intervention to reduce psychological trauma and stress amongst police officers in Pakistan.

2. To test whether reducing stress and psychological trauma reduces suicidal ideation in police officers.

3. To explore participants' experiences with EMDR Intervention.

Study design and setting:

The study will be a mixed-method feasibility randomized controlled trial of EMDR as an intervention in treating symptoms such as stress, trauma and suicidal ideation in police officers. The study will be conducted in five major cities in Pakistan: Rawalpindi, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, and Lahore.

Sample size:

A total of N=80 eligible police officers will be recruited and randomized in the study.

Detailed Description

EMDR intervention is an evidence-based psychological intervention that has been proven effective for stress and trauma, however, research evidence on feasibility of EMDR in forensic settings in Pakistan is limited. The current study aims to establish the feasibility and acceptability of EMDR intervention for management of stress, psychological trauma and suicidal ideation amongst police officers in Pakistan. The study will recruit a total of 80 police officers from police stations in the participating study sites, and prospective participants will be screened against eligibility criteria. Eligible consented participants will be enrolled in the study. An independent statistician will randomize participants to one of the two study arms: 1) EMDR (Intervention); or 2) waiting list control arm. Each participant in the intervention arm will receive 8 individual, weekly EMDR sessions over 8 weeks. Each session will take approximately 60-90 minutes. The sessions will be delivered at a place convenient to the participants. Trained EMDR therapists will deliver the intervention. The waiting list control arm will receive their routine care as usual, As part of the safety protocol, the details of any services each participant receives in the control group will be obtained. EMDR treatment will be offered to the control group (waiting control group) after the active intervention is complete. Assessment measures will be administered before and after the intervention at 8th week. All assessments will be rater blind. After post-assessments at 8th week, a purposefully selected subset (stratified by age & gender) of participants will be invited for qualitative interviews to explore their experiences and satisfaction with the intervention. Participants will be interviewed within 1 week of their post-intervention by a trained qualitative researcher exploring their experience with EMDR, the barriers and facilitators to engagement, and perceived benefits or negative experiences with the intervention. A sample of up to 15 interviews would be enough to achieve category saturation. On average, interviews will last for 60 minutes. The interview will be face-to-face or through telephone as an alternative to a face-to-face meeting to reduce the number of in-person meetings given the current context of COVID-19.

Conditions

Suicidal Ideation; Psychological Trauma; Stress

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

EMDR receiving group

EMDR is a psychotherapeutic approach that emphasizes the role of the brain's information processing system in perfecting the psychological consequences of distressing events. EMDR is an eight-phase treatment protocol, including procedure that focuses on the memories underlying current problems and those that must be specifically addressed to bring the client to a robust state of psychological health. One of its distinguishing aspects is its use of bilateral physical stimulation, such as side-to-side eye movements, alternating hand taps, or alternating auditory tones while the person undergoing treatment is mentally focusing on aspects of various life experiences.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Each participant in the intervention group will receive 8 individual, weekly EMDR sessions over 8 weeks. Each session will take approximately 60-90 minutes. The sessions will be delivered at a place convenient to the participant. Trained EMDR therapists will deliver the intervention.

Waiting list Control Group

The control group will receive their routine care as usual. Once the trial is completed they will be invited for EMDR sessions

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Each participant in the intervention group will receive 8 individual, weekly EMDR sessions over 8 weeks. Each session will take approximately 60-90 minutes. The sessions will be delivered at a place convenient to the participant. Trained EMDR therapists will deliver the intervention.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Having suicidal ideation measured as a score > 2 on Beck scale of suicidal ideation
• Aged 18 years - 60 years' old
• Police officer with psychological trauma measured with the International Trauma Questionnaire and stress measured with stress subscale of Depression, Anxiety and Stress scale

Exclusion Criteria

• Less than 12 months' experience in the police officer.
• Participants reporting active suicidal ideation measured as a score of 2 on item no 4 of BSSI will be excluded and referred to a psychiatric service.
• With current history of use of hard/psychoactive substances (excluding tobacco and caffeine).
• Unable to provide consent due to severe mental or physical illness.
• Unlikely to be available for the entire duration of the study.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 60 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of Manchester

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Nusrat Husain

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Manchester

Nasim Chahudhry

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning

Locations

Prison settings Peshawar

Peshawar, KPK, Pakistan

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

Pakistan

Central Contacts

MUQADDAS ASIF

Role: CONTACT

muqaddas.asif@pill.org.pk

042-35842310

Tayyeba Kiran

Role: CONTACT

tayyeba.kiran@pill.org.pk

021-36703712

Facility Contacts

Umair Ahsen

Role: primary

Other Identifiers

SAHAR M-EMDR-001

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id