Tripartite assessment of the efficacy of eye-movement desensitization in a multi-phobic patient

The relative efficacy of Eye-Movement Desensitization (EMD) and Eye- Focus Desensitization (i.e., a treatment procedure designed to control for the effects of eye movement) in treating multiple phobias was assessed along behavioral, cognitive, and physiological response channels in a single-subject, multiple-baseline design across fear areas. Continuous physiological measurements, rather than presession/post- session change scores, were employed to permit accurate, fine-grained analysis of each intervention's effects. Results indicated that EMD failed to produce clinically significant intra- and intersession improvements beyond those produced by the control procedure on all dependent measures. A second multiple-baseline design across fear areas was implemented with the same subject and employed in vivo exposure/reinforced practice in order to demonstrate the patient's potential responsiveness to treatment. This procedure produced dramatic improvement on behavioral and subjective measures, but not on physiological indices. Results from this single-case experiment did not support the effectiveness of EMD.