Suicidal IdeationNCT05171868
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for Police Personnel
A study testing Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in people with Suicidal Ideation and Psychological Trauma, run by Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning at 1 site in Pakistan.
Trial summary
Objectives: 1. To examine the feasibility of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) as an intervention to reduce psychological trauma and stress amongst police officers in Pakistan. 2. To test whether reducing stress and psychological trauma reduces suicidal ideation in police officers. 3. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 to 60 years
- Conditions the study is for
- Suicidal Ideation, Psychological Trauma, Stress
- What is being tested?
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 80 participants
- Where
- 1 sitePakistan
- Study dates
- 20 May 2022to 30 Jun 2025
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 to 60 years
- All sexes
- No healthy volunteers
- Adult
Who may be able to join
- Having suicidal ideation measured as a score > 2 on Beck scale of suicidal ideation
- Aged 18 years - 60 years' old
- Police officer with psychological trauma measured with the International Trauma Questionnaire and stress measured with stress subscale of Depression, Anxiety and Stress scale
Who cannot join
- Less than 12 months' experience in the police officer.
- Participants reporting active suicidal ideation measured as a score of 2 on item no 4 of BSSI will be excluded and referred to a psychiatric service.
- With current history of use of hard/psychoactive substances (excluding tobacco and caffeine).
- Unable to provide consent due to severe mental or physical illness.
- Unlikely to be available for the entire duration of the study.
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
Pakistan1 site, 1 recruiting
- Recruiting
Prison settings Peshawar
Peshawar, KPK, 25000
Umair Ahsen
About this study
Official title: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for Stress, Psychological Trauma and Suicidal Ideation in Police Personnel: A Feasibility Randomised Controlled Trial
Objectives:
- To examine the feasibility of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) as an intervention to reduce psychological trauma and stress amongst police officers in Pakistan.
- To test whether reducing stress and psychological trauma reduces suicidal ideation in police officers.
- To explore participants' experiences with EMDR Intervention.
Read more
Study design and setting:
The study will be a mixed-method feasibility randomized controlled trial of EMDR as an intervention in treating symptoms such as stress, trauma and suicidal ideation in police officers. The study will be conducted in five major cities in Pakistan: Rawalpindi, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, and Lahore.
Sample size:
A total of N=80 eligible police officers will be recruited and randomized in the study.
Read the detailed description
EMDR intervention is an evidence-based psychological intervention that has been proven effective for stress and trauma, however, research evidence on feasibility of EMDR in forensic settings in Pakistan is limited. The current study aims to establish the feasibility and acceptability of EMDR intervention for management of stress, psychological trauma and suicidal ideation amongst police officers in Pakistan. The study will recruit a total of 80 police officers from police stations in the participating study sites, and prospective participants will be screened against eligibility criteria. Eligible consented participants will be enrolled in the study. An independent statistician will randomize participants to one of the two study arms: 1) EMDR (Intervention); or 2) waiting list control arm. Each participant in the intervention arm will receive 8 individual, weekly EMDR sessions over 8 weeks. Each session will take approximately 60-90 minutes. The sessions will be delivered at a place convenient to the participants. Trained EMDR therapists will deliver the intervention. The waiting list control arm will receive their routine care as usual, As part of the safety protocol, the details of any services each participant receives in the control group will be obtained. EMDR treatment will be offered to the control group (waiting control group) after the active intervention is complete. Assessment measures will be administered before and after the intervention at 8th week. All assessments will be rater blind. After post-assessments at 8th week, a purposefully selected subset (stratified by age \& gender) of participants will be invited for qualitative interviews to explore their experiences and satisfaction with the intervention. Participants will be interviewed within 1 week of their post-intervention by a trained qualitative researcher exploring their experience with EMDR, the barriers and facilitators to engagement, and perceived benefits or negative experiences with the intervention. A sample of up to 15 interviews would be enough to achieve category saturation. On average, interviews will last for 60 minutes. The interview will be face-to-face or through telephone as an alternative to a face-to-face meeting to reduce the number of in-person meetings given the current context of COVID-19.
- Conditions
- Suicidal Ideation, Psychological Trauma, Stress
- Being tested
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Keywords
- Forensic settings, EMDR, Trauma, Police Personnel, Suicidal Ideation, Stress, Pakistan, Feasibility
- Medical subject headings
- Suicidal Ideation, Psychological Trauma, Wounds and Injuries
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)Behavioural
Each participant in the intervention group will receive 8 individual, weekly EMDR sessions over 8 weeks. Each session will take approximately 60-90 minutes. The sessions will be delivered at a place convenient to the participant. Trained EMDR therapists will deliver the intervention.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| EMDR receiving group | Experimental | EMDR is a psychotherapeutic approach that emphasizes the role of the brain's information processing system in perfecting the psychological consequences of distressing events. EMDR is an eight-phase treatment protocol, including procedure that focuses on the memories underlying current problems and those that must be specifically addressed to bring the client to a robust state of psychological health. One of its distinguishing aspects is its use of bilateral physical stimulation, such as side-to-side eye movements, alternating hand taps, or alternating auditory tones while the person undergoing treatment is mentally focusing on aspects of various life experiences. Receives: Behavioral: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) |
| Waiting list Control Group | No intervention | The control group will receive their routine care as usual. Once the trial is completed they will be invited for EMDR sessions |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Feasibility of recruitment
The feasibility will be determined by collecting data on recruitment rates. The success criterion of feasibility will be to recruit > 50% of eligible participants.
Measured: From baseline to 8th week (at the end of intervention)
Acceptability measure
Intervention acceptability will be assessed using data on intervention attendance. The criterion for acceptability is the intervention attendance rate of > 5 sessions.
Measured: From baseline to 8th week (at the end of intervention)
Feasibility of Retention
The feasibility of retention will be determined by collecting data on retention rates. The success criterion of feasibility of retention will be to retain > 50% participants.
Measured: From baseline to 8th week (at the end of intervention)
Secondary outcomes (6)
Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation
Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation is a 19-item instrument for detecting and measuring the current intensity of patient-specific attitude, behavior, and specificity of patient thoughts to kill themselves during the past week.
Measured: Change in problem scores from baseline to 8th week
The International Trauma Questionnaire
The International Trauma Questionnaire is a brief, simple-worded measure focusing on the core features of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Measured: Change in problem scores from baseline to 8th week
Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale
Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale is consist of three subscales that measure the negative emotional states of depression, anxiety, and stress and consist of 7 items per subscale. The participants are requested to use 4-point severity/frequency scales to rate the extent to which they have experienced each state over the past week.
Measured: Change in problem scores from baseline to 8th week
Beck Hopelessness Scale
Beck hopelessness scale measure three aspects of hopelessness; feelings about the future, loss of motivation and expectations. The scale consists of 20 statements each of which is scored as 0 or 1.
Measured: Change in problem scores from baseline to 8th week
Sleep Quality Questionnaire
Sleep Quality Questionnaire consists of eight items rated on a 5-point scale. It measures self-reported alertness, sleepiness, tiredness, and functional impairments associated with sleep and problems during waking hours within the past seven days.
Measured: Change in problem scores from baseline to 8th week
Coping Resource Inventory
The Coping Resource Inventory assesses the individual's stress management and coping resources with stress.
Measured: Change in coping resources scores from baseline to 8th week
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted29 Dec 2021
- Study start20 May 2022
- Primary completion30 Dec 2024 (estimated)
- Study completion30 Jun 2025 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for Suicidal IdeationStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Single blind
- Who is masked
- Outcomes assessor
- Enrolment
- 80 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- University of Manchester
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
- Investigators
- Nusrat Husain, Principal investigator, University of ManchesterNasim Chahudhry, Principal investigator, Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT05171868
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- SAHAR M-EMDR-001
- Status last verified
- May 2024
- First submitted
- 11 Dec 2021
- Last updated
- 17 May 2024
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- Yes
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 17 May 2024. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for Stress, Psychological Trauma and Suicidal Ideation in Police Personnel: A Feasibility Randomised Controlled Trial
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT05171868
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- SAHAR M-EMDR-001
- Conditions
- Suicidal Ideation, Psychological Trauma, Stress
- Keywords
- Forensic settings, EMDR, Trauma, Police Personnel, Suicidal Ideation, Stress, Pakistan, Feasibility
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Unknown status
- Enrolment
- 80 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- Pakistan Institute of Living and LearningUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- University of Manchester
- Study start
- 20 May 2022 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 30 Dec 2024 (estimated)
- Study completion
- 30 Jun 2025 (estimated)
- First posted
- 29 Dec 2021 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
Objectives:
- To examine the feasibility of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) as an intervention to reduce psychological trauma and stress amongst police officers in Pakistan.
- To test whether reducing stress and psychological trauma reduces suicidal ideation in police officers.
- To explore participants' experiences with EMDR Intervention.
Study design and setting:
The study will be a mixed-method feasibility randomized controlled trial of EMDR as an intervention in treating symptoms such as stress, trauma and suicidal ideation in police officers. The study will be conducted in five major cities in Pakistan: Rawalpindi, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, and Lahore.
Sample size:
A total of N=80 eligible police officers will be recruited and randomized in the study.
Detailed description
EMDR intervention is an evidence-based psychological intervention that has been proven effective for stress and trauma, however, research evidence on feasibility of EMDR in forensic settings in Pakistan is limited. The current study aims to establish the feasibility and acceptability of EMDR intervention for management of stress, psychological trauma and suicidal ideation amongst police officers in Pakistan. The study will recruit a total of 80 police officers from police stations in the participating study sites, and prospective participants will be screened against eligibility criteria. Eligible consented participants will be enrolled in the study. An independent statistician will randomize participants to one of the two study arms: 1) EMDR (Intervention); or 2) waiting list control arm. Each participant in the intervention arm will receive 8 individual, weekly EMDR sessions over 8 weeks. Each session will take approximately 60-90 minutes. The sessions will be delivered at a place convenient to the participants. Trained EMDR therapists will deliver the intervention. The waiting list control arm will receive their routine care as usual, As part of the safety protocol, the details of any services each participant receives in the control group will be obtained. EMDR treatment will be offered to the control group (waiting control group) after the active intervention is complete. Assessment measures will be administered before and after the intervention at 8th week. All assessments will be rater blind. After post-assessments at 8th week, a purposefully selected subset (stratified by age \& gender) of participants will be invited for qualitative interviews to explore their experiences and satisfaction with the intervention. Participants will be interviewed within 1 week of their post-intervention by a trained qualitative researcher exploring their experience with EMDR, the barriers and facilitators to engagement, and perceived benefits or negative experiences with the intervention. A sample of up to 15 interviews would be enough to achieve category saturation. On average, interviews will last for 60 minutes. The interview will be face-to-face or through telephone as an alternative to a face-to-face meeting to reduce the number of in-person meetings given the current context of COVID-19.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Single blind (outcomes assessor)
- Number of arms
- 2
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| EMDR receiving group | Experimental | Behavioral: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)EMDR is a psychotherapeutic approach that emphasizes the role of the brain's information processing system in perfecting the psychological consequences of distressing events. EMDR is an eight-phase treatment protocol, including procedure that focuses on the memories underlying current problems and those that must be specifically addressed to bring the client to a robust state of psychological health. One of its distinguishing aspects is its use of bilateral physical stimulation, such as side-to-side eye movements, alternating hand taps, or alternating auditory tones while the person undergoing treatment is mentally focusing on aspects of various life experiences. |
| Waiting list Control Group | No intervention | –The control group will receive their routine care as usual. Once the trial is completed they will be invited for EMDR sessions |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 to 60 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Not accepted
- Age groups
- Adult
Key inclusion criteria (3 listed)
- Having suicidal ideation measured as a score > 2 on Beck scale of suicidal ideation
- Aged 18 years - 60 years' old
- Police officer with psychological trauma measured with the International Trauma Questionnaire and stress measured with stress subscale of Depression, Anxiety and Stress scale
Key exclusion criteria (5 listed)
- Less than 12 months' experience in the police officer.
- Participants reporting active suicidal ideation measured as a score of 2 on item no 4 of BSSI will be excluded and referred to a psychiatric service.
- With current history of use of hard/psychoactive substances (excluding tobacco and caffeine).
- Unable to provide consent due to severe mental or physical illness.
- Unlikely to be available for the entire duration of the study.
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)Each participant in the intervention group will receive 8 individual, weekly EMDR sessions over 8 weeks. Each session will take approximately 60-90 minutes. The sessions will be delivered at a place convenient to the participant. Trained EMDR therapists will deliver the intervention. | Behavioural | EMDR receiving group |
Primary outcome
Feasibility of recruitment
Time frame: From baseline to 8th week (at the end of intervention)
The feasibility will be determined by collecting data on recruitment rates. The success criterion of feasibility will be to recruit > 50% of eligible participants.
Acceptability measure
Time frame: From baseline to 8th week (at the end of intervention)
Intervention acceptability will be assessed using data on intervention attendance. The criterion for acceptability is the intervention attendance rate of > 5 sessions.
Feasibility of Retention
Time frame: From baseline to 8th week (at the end of intervention)
The feasibility of retention will be determined by collecting data on retention rates. The success criterion of feasibility of retention will be to retain > 50% participants.
6 secondary outcomes
Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation
Time frame: Change in problem scores from baseline to 8th week
The International Trauma Questionnaire
Time frame: Change in problem scores from baseline to 8th week
Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale
Time frame: Change in problem scores from baseline to 8th week
Beck Hopelessness Scale
Time frame: Change in problem scores from baseline to 8th week
Sleep Quality Questionnaire
Time frame: Change in problem scores from baseline to 8th week
Coping Resource Inventory
Time frame: Change in coping resources scores from baseline to 8th week
Results and safety
Results are not available in the source record.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 17 May 2024.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Nusrat Husain principal investigator
University of Manchester
Nasim Chahudhry principal investigator
Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in people with Suicidal Ideation and Psychological Trauma, run by Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning at 1 site in Pakistan.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 3 inclusion and 5 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: status not confirmed, as of the sponsor's last update on 17 May 2024. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in Pakistan. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
Results are not available in the source record.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
Contact MUQADDAS ASIF (042-35842310, muqaddas.asif@pill.org.pk), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Feasibility of recruitment (time frame: From baseline to 8th week (at the end of intervention)). The study lists 3 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 17 May 2024; AzTrials last refreshed its copy on 6 Nov 2026.