Effectiveness of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing on Anxiety in Children with Thalassemia

Introduction: Thalassemia is one of the most common genetic diseases in the world and especially in our country. For many reasons, including chronic disease, health care costs, fear of early death and disease statues led to anxiety. This study aimed to determine the efficacy of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing method on decreasing the anxiety of thalassemic adolescent. Methods: This study was a clinical trial. 60 thalassemic adolescent between 20-12 years old were randomly assigned to two groups. Demographic questionnaire and Beck Anxiety Inventory were used to collection of data. In three sessions, the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing method were used in intervention group every other day for 45 to 30 minutes in each session. In control group no action were taken. For analysis of the obtained data, descriptive statistics, t-test, paired t-test, nonparametric tests and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests were used. Results: the results showed that the average level of anxiety of thalassemic adolescent before implementing of EMDR therapy in intervening group was 34.73±5.62 which after EMDR therapy changed to 19.90 ± 2.48. It shows an obvious reducing of anxiety compared to pre-intervention and the results were statistically significant (P0<001). Besides, the results showed that EMDR was effective on decreasing the symptoms of anxiety in thalassemic adolescent Conclusion: The current study showed that EMDR can be useful through having the influence on memory integration and it is an effective method for treat or reduce anxiety among thalassemic adolescent.