Application de l’EMDR au deuil traumatique après une collision de train

The aim of this exploratory study is to test the application of therapy EMDR in case of traumatic bereavement. The traumatic bereavement, which corresponds to the brutal loss of “other significant”, answers a precise clinical picture whose principal characteristics are the intrusive thoughts concerning the late one and of the difficulties of adjustment to the loss (feeling of vacuum, difficulties of recognizing the death, irritability, lack of reactivity, etc). The eight participants all of this study are of the members of the family of the victims of the train collision, which took place on October 12, 2006 in Zoufftgen. The subjects, old on average 35.2 years (S.D. = 11.1) and including 75 % women, followed between eight to 15 meetings (m = 10.75, S.D. = 2.21) answering protocol EMDR. The effectiveness of the therapy was evaluated starting from several criteria including traumatic bereavement, anxiety, depression and psychological distress. Five evaluations were carried out: before the therapy (T0), after six meetings (T1), at the end of the therapy (T2), then in three months (T3) and 12 months (T4) after the end of the therapy. The principal results seem to indicate an effectiveness of the therapy EMDR. Indeed, we observe a reduction in all the indicators between the beginning (T0) and the end of the therapy (T2). Moreover, when this reduction does not continue to three and 12 months, it remains, at least, stable at one year. These observations are very encouraging especially when it is known that 10 to 15 % of the patient develops a chronic depression.