PublicHealth said:
Harvard Medical School sleep expert and biochemist Dr. Robert Stickgold on the "eye movement mumbo-jumbo:"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/..._uids=11748597&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_DocSum
This stated that it was more effective than therapy alone. Where is the data that shows it is as effective as therapy without the eye movement?
Although no one has come up with an explanation, it makes sense that it could successfully treat PSTD. Given the research on PSTD, it is mostly due to autonomic instability, or failure of the lower centers of the brain to process the stressful event. So, I think
1. First the cognitive portions of the brain are accessed by recalling the stressful event--resulting in:
2. The lower centers, i.e. autonomics set back into thier original mode when the stressful event occured.
3. Doing the eye movement, (much like REM consolidates and processes memory), allows the mind to 'reset' itself and properly process the stressful event.
This is how I understand it, and although the mechanism has not been proven, given the other data about PSTD and rythmic processing, it makes sense that it would work.
