CovEMERALD: Early EMDR following critical illness: A feasibility trial [COVID-19]
Research type
Research Study
Full title
CovEMERALD: Can an online Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing intervention improve psychological outcome following Covid-19 related critical illness: A feasibility trial
IRAS ID
256821
Contact name
Andrew Bates
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 30 days
Research summary
Patients who require life-saving treatment in the Intensive Care Unit can find the experience to be highly traumatic and lead to disabling and long-lasting psychological problems. A recent, large study showed that around 50% of survivors will suffer from anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. This year over 12,000 patients have been admitted to ICU with Covid-19. Unfortunately, there are few specialist services available to help and little agreement on how best to help.
A widely-used psychological therapy called Eye-Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is recommended by the NHS, for treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and can be effective for anxiety and depression. It has been particularly well-studied in soldiers returning from war and victims of natural disasters. It has also helped people to come to terms with health conditions such as cancer and heart disease.
This study will investigate whether EMDR can help to reduce the psychological impact of trauma associated with Covid-19 related Intensive Care.
We will approach patients after leaving Intensive Care. If consent is granted, they will be randomly placed into two groups
In the ‘intervention group’, 13 patients will attend online EMDR sessions. They will attend a minimum of 2 and maximum of 8 weekly sessions, depending on need, assessed by our experienced team of psychologists.
In the ‘control group’, the remaining 13 patients will receive their normal care package, but not EMDR.
All patients will complete the same set of questionnaires at the start of the trial and 6-months after they have been discharged from hospital, in order to determine whether the EMDR was helpful.
The information that we gain from this study will be used to design a much larger study, which will investigate whether EMDR can be effective for all survivors of Covid related intensive care.REC name
London - Fulham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/HRA/3633
Date of REC Opinion
19 Aug 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion